Bowling Green band Cage the Elephant sometimes spends months at a time away from home while on tour.

But lead vocalist Matt Shultz said they’ll be home for Thanksgiving this year.

Cage the Elephant will play at 7:30 p.m. on Monday at the Capitol Arts Center, 416 E. Main St.

“It’s always fun to play in front of a crowd of people who you know and feel connected with on a community level,” Shultz said.

Cage the Elephant’s self-titled album was released in Europe over a year ago, he said. It took a year and a half before the band was picked up on popular radio in the United Kingdom.

“We spent our time going around playing to crowds of, like, 10 people,” he said. “We were trying to slowly build a touring fanbase.”

Karen Hume, executive director at the Capitol, said tickets are on sale for $15 at www.capitolarts.com.

“We’re thrilled that they’ve come to play a show in their hometown,” she said.

Hume said that many people at the Capitol, including herself, have been tracking the progress of Cage the Elephant over the past few years.

The band of Shultz, guitarists Lincoln Parish and Brad Shultz, bassist Daniel Tichenor and drummer Jared Champion toured in Europe in 2008 and came back in June after their album was released in the U.S., Shultz said. Then their first single, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” began to play regularly on the radio.

“We didn’t even believe it was happening,” he said. “I didn’t think we had a hit on that album, and we kept hearing from our manager how well it was doing on the charts. I still have trouble believing it.”

According to Billboard.com, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” peaked at No. 7 on the “Hot Rock Songs” chart at the end of June. Their current single, “Back Against the Wall,” is at No. 21 on the same chart.

Shultz said he thinks radio is changing.

“Five years ago, radio stations wouldn’t give our record a second glance, and I think now radio stations are opening up to new things they haven’t considered before,” he said.

Shultz said that change is what allowed Cage the Elephant to become successful in the U.S.

Bowling Green junior Joe Tichenor’s brother Daniel Tichenor is the bassist for Cage the Elephant.

Joe Tichenor said that while he studied abroad in the U.K., he realized that his brother’s band had already become famous there.

“It’s really surreal when you can hear a Cage song right after a song by Kings of Leon in a store,” he said. “It makes me feel really proud.”

Joe Tichenor said being successful in the U.S. is harder than making it in Europe.

“A lot of bands try and don’t succeed,” he said.

The band’s energy when they perform and their combination of different types of music have helped them make it in the U.S., Joe Tichenor said.

Shultz said that constant touring has made them see their friends and family in a different light.

Shultz said that the growth of the band has allowed him to hear music he had never thought about. He said they have completed a new album, which moves away from the blues sound on the first.

“We don’t feel a responsibility to any musical genre,” he said. “The bands that we look up to make it a habit of changing and evolving their music.”

The tentative release for the new album is May 2010, Shultz said.

“We really wanted to capture the energy of our live show on this record,” he said.