Hummus and batteries.

Those are the only requests on Neon Trees' tour rider on its first large-scale national tour.

The Provo-based band had thought about adding a cheese pizza to its list of backstage requests, but demurred.

"We didn't want to ask for too much," said Neon Trees singer and keyboard player Tyler Glenn in an interview. "We're only the opening band."

From the looks of things, Neon Trees won't be an opening band for long.

After signing with major-label Mercury Records in 2009, the pop-rock quartet just released its debut, "Habits," in March. "Animal," the first single went to No. 1 on the Alternative Specialty Chart in its debut week, and radio stations across the country, from sea to shining sea, have added it to the top tier of their airplay.

Although it was named in the Alternative Press roster of "Bands To Watch In 2010," Neon Trees is still getting used to success. "We'll still stop at Targets on the road, and I'll still stop at the record section to look at it," Glenn said.

The band had its genesis in southern California, where Glenn and guitarist Chris Allen lived in the same Temecula neighborhood but didn't know each other. Their fathers worked in the same office and set up a play-date with the two teens who at the time were "deadbeat sons," according to Glenn. The two began playing music together and found instant chemistry.

So much chemistry, in fact, that when Allen was accepted to a Provo college, Glenn followed him. It wasn't the Provo college you are thinking of -- Allen enrolled at the Utah College of Massage Therapy -- and the band quickly recruited bass player Brendan Campbell, and drummer Elaine Bradleym who was a BYU student.

The group was an anomaly in the northern Utah music scene because while its peers were jumping on the alt-country bandwagon that has infiltrated local showcases, Neon Trees were unabashedly different with their keyboards and new wave influences. "There's kind of an indie-cred [issue in Utah]," Glenn said. "Some people weren't into us because we liked to say we liked pop. We were the only ones who played pop."

The "catalyst" for Neon Trees' ascent was when The Killers had the band open several of its tour dates in 2008, said Glenn, and soon thereafter the band was signed to Mercury Records.

Neon Trees are also not shy about being ambitious. "It's nice to have this as my job, my sole job," Glenn said. "Just being able to eat and pay rent and buy some shoes."

The tour headliner, Los Angeles rock band 30 Seconds to Mars is led by occasional actor Jared Leto, and he said the Provo band was definitely warming up the crowd. "They've been doing a wonderful job," Leto said in an interview.

While Neon Trees will draw many fans because of their local fanbase, 30 Seconds to Mars will become the first rock band to have performed at the relatively new Rail Event Center for the second time. "That's our distinct pleasure to play it twice," Leto said.

The Los Angeles band released its third and most epic album, "This is War," in December. "The size and scope comes from us as musicians," Leto said. "From the minimus to the maximus, I have always been interested in dynamics ... It's a concentrated experience of life lived."

Neon Trees are at the beginning of its new life.