The sun rises and sets through the window and the moon takes its place. Hundreds of frogs are chirping in the background. As the five men collectively known as Incubus walk by the couches in front of the large window, the chirping is replaced by the screaming of about 7,000 rock fans.

This was the scene as Incubus took the stage of Hilton Coliseum on Tuesday. The band wasted no time in grabbing instruments and starting in on a set of music that spans the spectrum from funk to eastern music.

Dipping primarily into 2001’s “Morning View,” and 1999’s “Make Yourself,” the band also touched a few songs from “S.C.I.E.N.C.E.” but ignored its first two releases.

The setting was intimate for such a large stage — inside the large circle of lights and lasers, the group played around couches and took its cues from the audience, with singer Brandon Boyd and bassist Dirk Lance having small conversations with people in the crowd.

Of course, Dirk was more about flirting with girls and hocking a loogie on someone he knew below him than chatting.

During one break near the beginning of the set, Boyd noticed a sign endorsing guitarist Mike Einziger’s ability to dance — a play on the band’s song “You Will Be a Hot Dancer.”

“Have you ever seen Mike dance?,” Brandon asked. “He’s like EZ Rock with an afro.”

During the more intense musical moments, however, the band concentrated too hard to joke around, and focused on each other rather than the crowd. In the back, DJ Kilmore spent time bobbing his head by Jose Pasilla’s drum set when he wasn’t spilling hypnotic reverberations out of his turntables.

The band’s groove was tight, and whether the songs were soft or searing, crowd-surfers found their way toward the stage. The surfers were, as was most of the rest of the crowd, small and young. When people found how easy they were to lift, the unlucky kids were tossed through the air like napkins in a breeze.

A few acoustic songs with Einziger, Boyd and Lance sitting relaxed on the couch brought a much-needed rest to the crowd and, after ending the main set with the energetic “Certain Shade of Green,” Incubus returned with a 10-minute improvised wall-of-sound encore that bled into more improvised jazz and ultimately turned into “The Warmth.” The stage blackened and Einziger, Pasillas and Lance reappeared with their acoustic and eastern instruments ready for the gentle “Aqueous Transmission” to end the band’s performance.

This is the first concert ever for T.J. Cruishank and Andrew Pistorious, both of Marshalltown, and they say they are glad they came.

“It was a really great performance,” Cruishank says.

“I’m not really a big fan of theirs, but [Cruishank] had a ticket, so I came along,” Pistorious says. “But the performance was great and the music was awesome.”

The two joined a large percentage of the audience who were of high school age or younger.

Dawn Tigas, Des Moines Area Community College student, and Jenny Greenwood, of Ankeny, were more experienced and came two-and-a-half hours early just to get a good spot in the general admission floor area.

“When I went to Cedar Rapids to see them, there was a four-block line and we missed almost all of the opening band,” Greenwood says. Getting in early means getting up front, and that apparently doesn’t always end up being the best idea.

“We were probably there for about three songs and then we sneaked out. I’d rather keep my lungs,” Greenwood says.

“I’m going to go buy some frozen peas,” Tigas says, showing a large, scraped bruise on her shin. “I’ve got some battle wounds.”

Those wounds were inflicted after having endured the performance of opening act Home Town Hero, who marched onto the stage to the theme of video game “Halo” and proceeded through a powerful set of heavy pop-rock. Ray Blanco made his drums sorry they were ever created as he beat them hard enough to make Dave Grohl and John Bonham smile. The rest of the band squirmed all over the stage, but didn’t provide the security with many problems in containing the crowd, which just bobbed along.

“At first they seemed to have the same feel [as Incubus],” Pistorious says.

“But they got harder. They were a good way to start off.”

“I couldn’t hear the vocals very well, I really wish I could have heard it better,” Greenwood says.

When all was said and done for the night, the sun again set in the background screen and the sound of hundreds of amphibians chirping filled Hilton.