After playing a few dates on the Warped Tour last summer, Sappy Bell knows a thing or two about playing a bill that features several other bands. You might not get to play as long a set list as you would if you’re the only band on the schedule, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still put on one hell of a show. “We’re always energetic,” lead singer John Sloboda said. “It’s not like going to see a band and just listening — it’s actually going to SEE the band. We might only be up there 40 minutes, but we always try to wipe ourselves out and use all our energy.” Sloboda and the rest of Sappy Bell — Mel Hardy (guitar), Chris Hawley (guitar), Jeff Ready (bass) and Matt Kollar (drums) — are part of a big, six-band bill Feb. 9 at The Underground in Sandusky for Heavy Metal Night. Among the other bands on the schedule are Know Lyfe — who’ve played with Sappy Bell several times before — and Nailbinder, a group that recently played with Sappy Bell at Peabody’s in Cleveland, Sloboda said. This will be Sappy Bell’s fourth trip to Sandusky, and there are some plusses the Underground offers that venues closer its Cleveland home do not, Sloboda said. “The fact that it’s the only place in town (with original music) makes it really cool,” he said. “Sometimes in Cleveland, on the same night we’re playing somewhere, we’ll know bands that are playing on the other side of town, and people have a hard time figuring out who they want to go see.” Sappy Bell has been together for about 12 years, with this roster together for the last four. After putting out several small albums on its own, the band recently recorded its first full-length CD, “The Nightmare Chronicles.” The album — which is available online at iTunes and amazon.com and also at some music stores in bigger Midwest cities — is getting a few national reviews and has the band thinking a major breakthrough is possible. “We want to take big steps, but we always seem to be taking these baby steps,” Sloboda said. “… Every year we seem to do something kind of big, like last year we played three Midwest dates on the Warped Tour. Our goal always is to top that during the next year and keep doing bigger things.” Sappy Bell plays 100 percent original music, and although Sloboda said the group clearly has a heavy metal sound, there isn’t one band he compares it to. “I think kind of a good thing and a bad thing for us is that we have such a unique sound,” he said. “The music is kind of a hard rock band, but the vocals are a lot more heavy metal. “But we don’t listen to anybody and say, ‘That’s the kind of sound we have,’ ” he said. “We write every song a little bit different, and then we see which ones will help us in bigger picture. And we definitely try to keep a little bit of radio viability in the back of our minds. We don’t want to be the band you hear and can never imagine on the radio.” Justin Powell wishes he had a CD available at iTunes. He plays a pretty mean jazz trumpet. E-mail him at hello@funcoast.