For World/Inferno, anarchy in the US

Jack Terricloth is on the phone from his home in Brooklyn, wondering aloud how his tuxedo got so filthy during the show his band, the World/Inferno Friendship Society, played the night before. It's an indication of yet another successful and frenzied performance. Onstage, the singer plays a grinning, charismatic, and vaguely sinister character whose presence often unnerves the audience.

"I'd say that actually I'm trying to be charming, it just comes off bad," he says with a laugh. "I think they should know who's in charge right off the bat. No, we're actually just having a good time, which seems to make people very uncomfortable. But we genuinely enjoy what we do, and we really get into it. It turns out that passion frightens most people. If they don't get totally into it, they're totally frightened by it."

That reaction might also have something to do with the riot of information coming from the stage. With the kohl-eyed, close-cropped Terricloth acting like the master of ceremonies for a rally on the verge of becoming violent, a World/Inferno show typically involves at least eight musicians -- including two drummers, a horn section, and, when the Hold Steady can spare him, curly-mustached keyboardist/accordionist Franz Nicolay . The result, live and on albums like last summer's sharp "Red Eyed Soul," flirts with chaos, with a combination of punk vitality, Poguesy tenderness, and Old World spectacle.

It's a style that Terricloth refers to as "circus punk," and it has allowed the decade-old band to share the stage with a wide range of acts, from Reverend Glasseye's gothic carnival music to hardcore groups such as Lifetime (with whom they play on Sunday at Axis) and the Bouncing Souls . But the singer welcomes the challenge of playing to new audiences. "It's always best the first time people see us, because they do not know what to expect, and they're shocked," he says.

The transformation from Pete di Ventantonio of Bridgewater, N.J., to Terricloth began at age 15, when he pretended to know how to play bass so he could ditch school and tour with a friend's band. As guitarist and singer of Sticks and Stones , he was active on the New Jersey punk scene through the mid-1990s. World/Inferno (and his new identity) came not long after, surrounding an anarchic point of view with the trappings of cabaret.

The combination of theatricality and political statement stems in large part from a love of the subversive art scene of 1930s Germany. "I am fascinated by the middle of the 20th century," says Terricloth. "It just seemed the point where the world changed. Anything is possible, and of course the worst possible thing happened. But before that it was impossible, and it could have gone either way. I think we're living in times like that now, where things could go any way, so I'm fascinated by the last time this happened."

It's not simply a pose, either. In September, World/Inferno was invited to perform at New York's Spiegeltent , one of eight traveling mirrored circus tents created 100 years ago in Belgium. It seems the ideal venue for the band, which for the occasion came up with "Peter Lorre's Twentieth Century," a musical about the "Casablanca" and "M" actor. It was precisely the type of thing that made Spiegeltent director of programming Thomas Kriegsmann seek the band out in the first place.

"World/Inferno was certainly one of the first that I could possibly think of that could match the theatricality of a room like that," says Kriegsmann. "They did two nights. They both sold out. I think it was, for their fans, a really memorable experience seeing them in that space. We'll probably never be able to bring them back, because their fans were so insane. . . . They nearly shredded the joint."

Perhaps that extreme reaction is simply a response to the sheer volume of contradictions at the core of World/Inferno. The band is made up of anti-authority lefties who adore "Triumph of the Will" director Leni Riefenstahl and whose performances often sport fascist undertones. There's a fierce pro-anarchy and anti-capitalism streak, but they still considered Mitsubishi's attempt to license their song "Zen and the Art of Breaking Everything in This Room."

"We all thought it was tacky and a bad idea, but if it was a huge amount of money, we would have put our morals aside," says Terricloth. "The lyrics are against lawyers and stockbrokers and CEOs. . . . I thought maybe someone in the advertising department had a sense of humor and was just [messing] with me."

But instead of tearing World/Inferno asunder, the contradictions help keep the band unpredictable . "I don't want to give people who have never heard us before the impression that we're a flaming mess," Terricloth says, "but I think everyone [in the band] knows their strengths and their weaknesses. We know how to orchestrate. We can all read music and know what's going on. But sometimes be a giant flaming mess."

World/Inferno Friendship Society is at Axis with Lifetime and Cloak & Dagger on Sunday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. Go to livenation.com.