The Campus Activities Board concert committee welcomes Boston rock ‘n’ roll band “Scruffy the Cat” to Diversions tonight.

The four-member band is part of the “big explosion of bands coming out of Boston now,” said Gerald Joyce, concert committee member.

“They’re a fantastic band,” Joyce said. “They’re very guitar-oriented, somewhat similar to, but a lot harder than REM. If you enjoy hearing guitar played hard, but still intelligently, you’ll really enjoy this band. They play guitars like they were meant to be played.

“People shouldn’t be scared off by the name. If a band has a frivolous name, it doesn’t mean their music is going to be frivolous. I mean, if you think about it, ‘The Beatles’ is a pretty silly name.”

Joyce said the band is more talented than most Top 40 bands. “If you put ‘Scruffy the Cat’ in a hall with, say, ‘The Hooters,’ and took away that bands’ flashy clothes, mousse and hairspray, you’d definitely find out which was the better band,” he added.

“‘Scruffy the Cat’ receives quite a lot of airplay on stations like WXRT in Chicago and local station WKDI,” said concert committee coordinator Stacey Deegan.

“They also have a video on MTV, played during the 120 Minutes program which is devoted to new, alternative artists,” she said.

The band has been touring the United States and Canada periodically since 1983. During that time, they have released two albums, “High Octane Revival” and, most recently, “Tiny Days” from which their most popular single to date, “My Baby, She’s All Right,” was taken.

This will be the first time that the CAB has scheduled a band into Diversions (located in the lower level of the Holmes Student Center), Deegan said. “We think it’s a good place to have bands play. The noon concerts that were held there last year were very successful. ‘Scruffy the Cat’ seems like a good band to start out with,” she added.

“Scruffy the Cat” will perform with “Happy Hunting,” a local band that has been together for two years and has a considerable following in the DeKalb area.

Tickets to the 8 p.m. show, available at the door, are $3 for NIU students and faculty.