Birmingham, England has a knack for creating tough bands — Ozzy Osbourne’s Black Sabbath and Napalm Death started here before they made it big.

Following in their footsteps is The Fight. Birmingham’s latest export has hit U.S. shores in hopes of bringing audiences an experience that will open the door for more U.K. acts to follow.

The Fight grew out of the Birmingham music scene, where the bandmates met while playing with different groups.

“Jak is my brother, so we were together and we were all playing in the same scene,” says the band’s female vocalist, who goes by the stage name K8. “It just happened that we all decided to get together. It made sense, that rather than sit out on a corner and do drugs, we should play music together.”

K8 says the band named themselves The Fight as a Clash-inspired rip off, but it grew out of that phase rather quickly.

“We try not to define ourselves by one band or another, or say they are our major influence,” K8 says. “We have such a broad range of musical interests; the way we think about it is that we really influence each other.”

Since The Fight made its jump across the Atlantic, it has noticed at least one difference about performing in the United States.

“Obviously there is a much lower drinking age in the U.K.,” K8 says. “So audiences [in the U.K.] are a lot different than U.S. audiences. In the U.K., people come to see the show to get drunk; here in the U.S., kids come to listen to the music and hang out. The atmosphere is entirely different.”

Life on the road is far from the homesick experience some bands make it out to be, K8 says.

“Being on tour is a great excuse not to do a real job. We love to meet new friends and see people’s neat fashion sense from one part of the country to another,” she says. “Riding in a van for hours on end every day can be a great experience if you do it with the right people.”

In between shows and travel, the members of The Fight fill their time with a number of diversions.

“Just random things happen out on the road,” K8 says. “Like tonight, we are looking forward to an ‘O.C.’ marathon. At one time we were on a casino binge. We would go into a place and throw down $500 on a single bet. We also like to go to Wal-Mart. There is no equivalent place to it in the U.K., so when we come here it’s great fun — like Disneyland but not as good. We go in there, run around and go crazy. We’re like, ‘Look at all the candy!'”

One goal The Fight hopes to achieve from its U.S. tour is encouraging Americans to take more of an interest in English groups.

“It is so hard for U.K. groups to become known in the U.S.,” K8 says. “We would really like to change that, so that when we come back to the U.S. we can bring along some of our friends that we have a great time playing with back home.”

The Fight has made one previous stop in Iowa, and remembers an enthusiastic response.

“We played there and had a great show,” says K8. “There was a bug invasion of our hotel — I remember it well.”

Who: The Fight with Keepers of the Carpet

Where: M-shop

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Cost: $5 student, $7 public