After only six months as a band, the melodic hardcore trio from the Ames area known as For a Broken Robot already exhibits the bitterness and frustration of a band that has toured together for years.

At first glance, the three 17-year-olds look like the typical group of friends with everything in common and nothing to lose.

Upon further investigation, it seems the only thing the boys share may be their cheek-length curly hairdos.

For starters, the three have different stances on smoking and alcohol. As soon as vocalist Ian Vens states his willingness to “go with the flow,” percussionist Jojo Soukup says, “I’m against that. I like to go against the flow.”

From here on out, the boys contradict one another like characters from a Monty Python Argument Clinic.

On the left we have Vens, an agnostic. In the middle sits the courteous, yet troublesome, Soukup, a Baptist. Then to the right sits the completely silent, too-cool-for-school Levi Sumpter.

“Levi is just Levi,” Soukup says. “He thinks he’s the greatest guitarist ever. He worships himself.”

Unfortunately, after a few minutes, Sumpter abruptly leaves to go back to work, without having said more than a word. Now Soukup and Vens are free to speak their minds without rebuttals from their guitarist deity.

“He was in his ‘I want to impress you’ mode tonight,” Soukup says.

“There’s a lot of friction between Levi and Jo,” Vens says.

Friction indeed. Though Vens says the three have been friends for years and describes Soukup as being very personable, he admits that his friend tends to “stick to his guns to the point of annoyance.”

Perhaps it was the reference to guns, but for no apparent reason, the passive-aggression of the band is made more evident as Vens suddenly says, “Wanna see my knife?”

With no encouragement needed, Vens slaps a dangerous-looking plastic switchblade on the table. Following suit, but never in the same way, Soukup promptly produces a small multipurpose pocketknife and extends its corkscrew in a menacing fashion.

Conversation between the two covers everything from Soukup considering asking Vens’ girlfriend to the homecoming dance to the time Soukup defecated in the parking lot of his own church because “the doors were locked.”

No matter what the topic, there’s a strong sense of “friendly strife,” as Soukup describes the members’ chemistry.

The biggest fight Soukup and Vens say the band has had involved a song about being vampires that Vens and Sumpter wrote. When they brought it near-finished to Soukup, he refused to play it because of his religious beliefs.

When asked if he foresees the band staying together long-term, Soukup responds quickly and harshly, knowing the thickness of his friends’ skin.

“Well, we were thinking about replacing Ian,” he says.

One wonders how friends can have so much conflict and yet say they’re considering holding college plans off to keep playing as a band. Even the skies seem to give their thoughts on the boys’ tendency to rub each other the wrong way. Vens says For a Broken Robot has played in the middle of two tornado alerts already.

“Wherever we go, storms follow us,” Soukup says. “I guess we just bring the attitude.”