There’s a predetermined reputation most hardcore-metal bands receive when they go on stage. With the macabre atmospheres of music festivals such as Ozzfest, The Plastic Constellations say they try to counteract this attitude and set a lighter stage.

Jeff Allen, one of the group’s two guitarists, says they’re just out to have fun.

“When we play our shows, we just kind of have fun and aren’t serious,” Allen says. “We like to get down, jump around and act like idiots.”

He says the group’s on-stage energy helps to get the crowd going and into the music.

“We just hope the audience enjoys it,” he says.

Allen says the group’s past experience with instruments — or lack of experience — and their juvenile abilities have made a perfect mix of going-nowhere teen rock.

“We had a feeling that we wanted to get across, but we didn’t have the experience with instruments to make music that made us happy,” he says. “It didn’t help that we were really bad.”

Now, Allen says, The Constellations have transcended the boundaries of junior high and parent-sponsored carpools to become a group of licensed-to-drive musicians.

“We can write the sort of songs we want now,” Allen says. “We’re able to do things musically and experientially that we couldn’t do before.”

This summer, the band hit the road, promoting its third album, “Mazatlan,” all over the country.

“When we started touring, we were seniors in high school,” he says. “Touring has been a lot of fun because we get to travel together with friends and see the country. Sometimes we go months without seeing our friends, so when we see them on tour, it’s like a little reunion.”

Allen says even with the quartet’s label and touring, it remembers where it came from and what’s important in the members’ lives.

“We always make time for our personal lives and don’t let the band become all-consuming,” he says. “Three of four of us have graduated from college, one is in college right now, and I’m married, and some of the other guys have girlfriends.”

For its immediate future, Allen says the band will keep on rocking and having fun.

“We’re going to do some more touring and work on a new record, but we’re just going to keep doing what we do,” he says.

Who: The Plastic Constellations; Kurefest, sponsored by KURE 88.5 FM

Where: The dungeons in Friley Hall

When: 6 p.m. today

Cost: Free