It happens near the end of a chat with The Hell Caminos.

A pretty brunette walks into rRed Elephant Cafe and plops on a nearby lounger. Her seafoam blue hoodie almost hides a snug, pink Hell Caminos tee.

Drummer Handsome Jack nudges standup bass player Michael Camino to see for himself.

"We did not plan that," insists Jack, smiling, his face turning scarlet. "I swear to God! We did not pay her to be here." Dude seems so sincere, I believe him.

The Hell Caminos craft music that falls in the realm of psychobilly — a typically dark of lyric hybrid of snarly '70s punk and country-fried '50s rockabilly.

An evening with the trio's raucous 2005 "Through the Day and Through The Night" disc or at a live gig prove the guys have musical chops to spare. All three Caminos sing. And the band is crazy energetic on stage, with guitarist Nick Danger standing on Michael's bass when, say, Jack isn't leaving his standup drum kit to play rhythms on it.

"Jack likes to say that we're like the turtles of the Galápagos Islands," said Michael Camino (no real names, please). "We've kind of evolved our own psychobilly genre that's more melodic than some other more hardcore psychobilly bands. We don't sing about horror or zombies. We don't really have social issues."

Instead, there are songs about girls, the perils of alcohol abuse and other topics more rooted in young adult reality.

"(That's) because we've all had our hearts broken. That's the kind of thing that people can kind of relate to," Michael said. "The best songs come from struggle."

The three original Caminos — Michael, Nick and single-named former drummer Travis — shared a deep-if-not-so-dark secret: The die-hard punk rockers clandestinely dug rockabilly. Carl Perkins. Elvis Presley. Johnny Cash. Anything from Sun Records would do.

Michael suggested an alternative to hardcore, based on his songs. Out of rehearsals came the band's version of psychobilly. Jack joined a year later when Travis left for college.

The Hell Caminos' Creepshow Peep Show! gig on Saturday is a benefit for their first-ever off-island tour next month. The band is looking forward to the two-week West Coast trek. "It can be hard to get shows (here) in anything other than an underground music setting," Jack said, "where you're playing in a basement or out in the woods somewhere."

The Hell Caminos attribute their three-year survival to hard work, the intensity of their live shows, having a CD out, word of mouth and their MySpace site. They are big supporters of local nonprofit Unity Crayons, which supports and organizes all-ages, no-alcohol live shows for local bands and youths.

"The all-ages crowd is our bread and butter," Michael said. They're the kids that go crazy at shows, that buy CDs and support local music. ... We're avid supporters because that's where people get that first seed planted about live music."

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.