They’re just happy to be here, folks

Faced with teeming throngs of cherubic rock bands hawking their punky charm, skater wear and shout-along anthems, you can still pick the five twentysomethings in Yellowcard out of a lineup.

They are the band with the violin.

And they are the band without the affected sneer.

“I don’t think we have that much to moan about,” 23-year-old singer-guitarist Ryan Key says. “We’re sort of blessed with this opportunity to tell our own story through our songs.”

That story includes a cross-country move from Florida that tested finances and family, plucky juggling of the band’s personnel, months of exhaustive gigging in Southland clubs and, in the spring of 2002, a contract with Capitol Records.

The deal yielded this summer’s “Ocean Avenue,” an album of exuberant rockers that the native Floridians perform with almost evangelical zeal. Now the quintet known for playing lunch-hour gigs at high schools -- and for having a violinist who does back flips -- has earned an “MTV2 Handpicked” slot as headliner Saturday at the Henry Fonda Theatre.

To cop the title from Yellowcard’s single, that’s “Way Away” from the summer of ‘99, when some kids from Jacksonville, Fla., piled into a van and drove to California, even living for a while in a beachfront parking lot, to try to sell themselves to Santa Barbara-based Lobster Records. Only after the group returned to Florida, added Key to the lineup and integrated boyhood friend and fiendish fiddler Sean Mackin into the band did Yellowcard click.

“What jumped out at me was their ability to express emotions very succinctly in both lyrics and melody,” says Lobster president Steve Lubarsky, who signed the band when it migrated again the following year. “It was obvious they were hard-core for the music, and they were such nice kids, so unspoiled.”

Yellowcard’s resolve was tested over the next two years, during which the band established a base in Thousand Oaks, released its debut on Lobster, “One for the Kids,” and gigged just about anywhere they were allowed to plug in their amps.

“It was a huge adjustment,” Key says. “We went from being in college and supported by our parents to being completely alone and worrying about how to pay our rent.”

They minded day jobs at places like Chili’s in Westlake and won fans at places like Anaheim all-ages venue Chain Reaction.

“They really worked it,” says Jon Halperin, who books bands for the club. “There’s nothing snooty about them -- they didn’t grow up playing at the Roxy and wondering if there were suits in the crowd.”

Of course, it wasn’t all charisma. In a business where, as Halperin says, “it’s refreshing to see something that’s even 10% different,” Yellowcard had Mackin and his stringed instrument, a searing presence on the band’s hard-charging numbers, nuanced and wistful on ballads.

“I feel almost embarrassed because of my classical background -- I don’t have a lot of rock knowledge,” says Mackin, 24, who speaks unselfconsciously about being “one of those kids with glasses playing violin” and of a mother whose favorite refrain was “I don’t hear you practicing.”

“Now it’s funny to look out and see kids with hands two feet away from their face, air-bowing,” he says.

If the novelty earned a curiosity-seeking audience on this summer’s Warped Tour (Yellowcard will graduate to the main stage next year), it also makes friends at what Key calls the “guerrilla-style” appearances -- quick day shows at high schools in the towns in which Yellowcard is scheduled to play that night.

“Other bands have asked us, ‘Are you guys crazy?’ ” Mackin says. “But it’s a great way to reach out to kids who can’t come to a show because they aren’t old enough or who’ve never heard of us.”

It’s not a hard sell, considering the group’s largely angst- and irony-free songs, which follow the predictable themes of empowerment, growing up and romance. Just don’t lump the quintet, which includes guitarist Ben Harper, bassist Alex Lewis and drummer Longineu Parsons, in with the pop-punks.

“Pop-punk is the most ridiculous oxymoron in the English language,” Key says. “We’re a rock band, just doing our thing.”

For Key, that thing is sorting through recent events. “Ocean Avenue’s” “Way Away” is a follow-your-dreams anthem, “Believe” tackles the events of 9/11 and “Twentythree” is a thrashy, just-grow-up reprimand. Then there is “Life of a Salesman,” a salute to Key’s father, who disapproved of the songwriter’s decision to drop out of college to pursue his rock ‘n’ roll dream.

“For a long time we didn’t speak about anything more than whether the car insurance bill was paid. He was really disappointed in my decision to play music and move to California and live my life the way I did,” Key says. “But he’s really 180’d, and we’re best friends now.

“There are enough songs about kids who hate their parents -- there didn’t need to be another one. Nobody really gives any props to parents who raised them right.”

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Yellowcard

Who: Yellowcard, with Maxeen

Where: Henry Fonda Theatre,

6126 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

When: Saturday, 7 p.m.

Price: $15

Info: (323) 464-0808

Kevin Bronson can be reached at kevin.bronson@latimes.com