Band Sick Puppies in Valley play Mat-Su Resort tonight

MAT-SU — As he grabbed a bite to eat just prior to a sound check at a show in North Dakota, Shim Moore spoke by phone about what brings him and his band, Sick Puppies, back to Alaska.

“Everyone treats you really well,” said Moore, the band’s singer/guitarist. “They treat you like a guest instead of a tourist.

The relationship between the band and Alaska goes back to at least 2007 when Shim and crew came here to release their first album — “Dressed Up As Life.”

“We were invited by the promoter Chris (Cardenas of Frozen Records) to do a show up there after he’d seen us do a show in L.A. in front of 10 people,” Moore said.

The gig didn’t pay beyond covering Sick Puppies’ expenses, but Moore said he and the band had a blast.

“We’ve been back at least once a year since,” he said.

This year the band is playing three dates in Alaska, starting tonight at Rumrunners at Mat-Su Resort. Saturday, they’ll be playing in Anchorage’s Downtown Square, then on Sunday they’ll head further south to play Hooligan’s in Soldotna.

“Alaska here we come! Go get tickets at www.sickpuppies.com before they run out. See you Fri, Sat. & Sun. It’s always a good time up there,” read the latest post in the band’s Twitter feed Thursday.

As he speaks between bites, Moore’s accent from his native Australia is hard to miss. The band was born in 1997 when Moore was still in high school. He and bassist Emma Anzai actually met in the school’s music room when both had booked the room and they fought over who got to practice. Drummer Chris Mileski joined later.

In 2001, Sick Puppies put out its first record, called “Welcome to the Real World.”

“It’s really hard to find,” Moore said of that album.

But “Welcome to the Real World” led to a management deal and eventually the band decided to move to L.A. Mileski decided to stay behind.

According to the band’s website, Moore and Anzai found his replacement, Orange County Native Mark Goodwin, on Craigslist.

That second album soon followed. A video for the first single, “All the Same,” shot in a Sydney shopping mall in which a man holds up a sign offering “Free Hugs,” drew millions of YouTube hits.

Since then, Sick Puppies songs have been used in professional wrestling pay-per-view broadcasts and to advertise the recent video game Street Fighter IV.

And, through it all, the band has been touring. The show he spoke from was at the Red River Valley Fair in West Fargo, N.D. The tour roster includes dates in Maine, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Florida and Texas. Asked if music has become a full-time gig, Moore said it’s beyond that.

“We’ve been on tour for six months,” he said. “There’s no real break or stop. … It’s more than a full-time gig, it’s a lifestyle choice.”

He promised that Alaskans will not be disappointed; Sick Puppies will give them “what you hear on the radio, times 10.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.