After appearing at last year’s Coachella and this year’s South-by-Southwest music festivals, Cage the Elephant is at it again.

The Kentucky quintet known for hits like “”Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked,”” “”Back Against the Wall”” and “”In One Ear”” is preparing to grab the elephant by the tusks for its second show in Tucson since December.

The band’s simple and raw songs speak of their life experiences and typically illustrate their frustrations with society.

Lead singer and lyricist Matt Shultz cites Bob Dylan as an influence on his writing.

“”Just the honesty in Dylan’s music and how he looked at society, it really opened my eyes to how blind we really are,”” Shultz writes on the band’s website.

Their self-titled album released last year tackles religion, corruption, war and hypocrisy along with other heated topics.  

“”The music comes from a pure place,”” Shultz writes. “”We really like the energy of music that feels passionate, raw, unplanned emotion. That’s what we were really trying to capture in the studio.””

This small-town group defies expectations. Its members are determined to defy the expectation that young people from their hometown of Bowling Green can only work for the local Chevrolet assembly plant. Instead, they are creating their own futures through music.

“”Forming Cage the Elephant was a rebellious thing — a way for us to carve out our own path instead of following the path created by the community that surrounded us,”” Shultz writes.

They’ve mixed genres — old-school rock-and-roll with a modern punk twist — to create a sound all their own.

“”You have a responsibility to innovate but a lot of the time people allow pretentiousness to taint their innovation and what you end up with is very contrived and soulless music,”” Shultz writes. “”Everything we love about music we wanted to put in our own music. When it comes down to it, we just want to make music that we love.””

If You Go:

Cage the Elephant with 22-20s and AutoVaughn

Rialto Theatre

318 E. Congress St.

Thursday, June 10 at 7 p.m.

Tickets $16 in advance and $18 day of show