All of which is enough to make Free Energy the envy of aspiring acts aiming to distinguish themselves amid a mad scramble of starter bands.
Even so, it's a slow grind.
The skinny-legged, long-haired guys who look as though they could have walked off the cover of a vintage Steve Miller album are striving to make a name for themselves in an industry that has been contracting for more than a decade.
So even though they're signed to a New York label revered by hipsters (DFA Records) and are backed by one of the four remaining major recording companies (EMI), Free Energy can't count on CD or download sales as a main source of income.
Once, a band could have. That's how it worked under the old rules. Today, anyone trying to make it in the music business is playing by the New Rules - which means, in the age of iTunes and YouTube, MySpace and Twitter, that the rules are always changing.
Under the New Rules, getting fans to pay for recorded music is a tough sell, but there can be real value in giving it away. And hardworking bands can make a living from playing live shows and placing songs in commercials, movies, and TV shows - so-called syncs.
"The industry has changed so much in the last five years that the rules that apply at one point don't really apply six months later," says Simon Henderson, the Scotsman who comanages the Philadelphia rock band Drink Up Buttercup.
So while Free Energy may sort of look like rock stars, and may one day be rock stars, they're not living like rock stars. On the rare occasions when they're home, they reside in shared apartments or group houses. All except Wells, who is not living quite that large.
