Space Oddity

"We didn't really get fans until we got in the van and hit the road," Todd says. "The New York fan base grew exponentially when we started selling records, and then New York was happy to claim us. We played a couple shows where the attendance was one, besides the other bands that were playing."

These idiosyncrasies and dogged attention to craft have left Todd comfortable about the band's original narrative arc drawing to a close. No World for Tomorrow introduces a new villain, but also the draining of a beam of light that supplies the planets' energy. And the band has announced that its fifth album, forthcoming next year, will finally wrap up the Kilgannon family saga.

But it won't signal the end of Coheed and Cambria the band, which plans to continue playing under the name. "We haven't really discussed whether we're going to run with another concept. We might run with another story that parallels Coheed and Cambria," Todd says. "We might just write new organic songs that don't have to do with anything. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."