The “Alternative Press Fall Ball” tour, which opens this weekend at Clutch Cargo’s in Pontiac, marks something of a comeback for Adam Siska, bassist of headliner The Academy Is...

In May, in “kind of a fluke accident,” Siska cut his hand on a broken bottle in Iowa City. He damaged two tendons in his fright hand and did enough damage to require surgery, keeping him off the road for four months. “I wasn’t sure if I’d get to play again,” says Siska, 21, who co-founded the Chicago alternative rock group in 2003. “I’ve been working hard at it every day, just kind of strengthening my hands and everything.

“It feels fine now. Luckily it was my picking hand. I read that Tom Petty did the same thing, only he smashed his spreading hand, and it turned out OK. And the drummer from Def Leppard only has one arm, so it could’ve been much worse for me.”

With Siska back in the fold, The Academy Is... has released a new EP, “Lost in Pacific Time,” to accompany the tour. And once the group comes off the road, Siska says it will start work on its fourth album, the follow-up to 2008’s “Fast Times at Barrington High,” which debuted at No. 17 on the Billboard 200 — the band’s best showing yet.

“We’ve got some songs going, but we definitely don’t want to rush that sort of thing,” Siska says. “I, personally, feel like we’ll be a lot more aggressive this time, ’cause the last record was a little more clean-cut and polished. It was a little too polished for our tastes, to be honest, but the songs work well in that setting.

“But right now, the song we’ve been writing are a little more on the loud side. I think all (albums) are reactions to each other, so I think we’ll approach it a little differently on the next one.”



The “Alternative Press Fall Ball” tour with The Academy Is..., Mayday Parade, Set Your Goals and others, plays at 6:30 p.m. Friday (Sept. 25) at Clutch Cargo’s, 65 E. Huron St., Pontiac. Tickets are $15, with a $44 four-pack. Call (248) 333-2362 or visit www.livenation.com.