It isn’t often that a “Boys Night Out” contains a girl. Toronto-based rock band Boys Night Out has no problem making this exception.

“We’ve had the band name since we were 13 and 14 years old, we get a lot of shit about it from immature fans – but not from Kara Dupuy. We could get three more girls in the band and it wouldn’t matter, we don’t care,” said Boys Night Out guitarist Jeff Davis.

The new addition of keyboardist Dupuy came during the preparation for and recording of Boys Night Out’s latest album, “Trainwreck.” Boys Night Out drummer Ben Arseneau knew Dupuy from Detroit, and after an EP and an album, Boys Night Out was looking to find a different sound.

“There were synth parts here and there we wanted to use female vocals. It was something we were always interested in. We realized we needed it for this album,” said Davis of the addition to Dupuy on their second full-length album and first concept album.

The thought of a concept album for such a young group seems foreign to many, but fits right in with Boys Night Out’s unconventionalism.

“The story is about a man who has really chronic nightmares – sexually violent, terrible nightmares. He wakes up one morning and he has killed his wife in her sleep. It’s about his life and what happens to him. It was a short story I wrote a long time ago,” Davis said.

Central Iowa fans were already able to catch some of these new tunes, which are titled with verbs ending in “-ing,” when Boys Night Out played the Nintendo Fusion tour this fall at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines. Its next round of touring, this time with Chiodos, Action Reaction and headliner Armor for Sleep, will make a stop at a much smaller venue in Des Moines.

“We’ve played at the House of Bricks before. It’s more our kind of show. Playing shows is not about getting big – we play music for us. It makes us feel good and it’s something we feel strongly and passionate about,” Davis said of the smaller show coming up Thursday. “You can make a real connection with the kids there, that is the most important part.”

Although they enjoy playing for small groups, Davis said he remembers playing one show in Rhode Island during the Nintendo Fusion Tour, where almost 10,000 people were present.

“We had a good time with all the bands, we loved it,” he said.

But the fans did not immediately flock to the Canada-based band. It has been building up its fan base since the band came together in 2001.

“It was harder to build a fan base in Canada in the beginning because our manager and our label were both in the states and that is where we toured the most,” Davis said.

“We never toured Canada. Now the fans are far better there than in the states. The kids are really loyal up there and not many tours come through, so they really appreciate the music.”

Davis said he finds the band’s music cannot be compiled or pinned into just one genre, enabling Boys Night Out to reach out to various fans.

“The music speaks for us and for itself. No band should be proud to say, ‘We are only metal or only screamo.’ If a song is poppy or if its fast or whatever, if we like it, we record it,” Davis said of the tracks on the new album.

As Boys Nights Out keeps listeners on their toes, its focuses on staying progressive.

“We just got bored with what we were playing and the scene and all the shows we were playing. We just thought ‘this is our career’ and kind of changed the sound on this album,” he said.