It’s the story of love and passion, tragedy and death. It’s the story of a perfectly healthy man who died of natural causes two days after his wife.

Such is the story of Addison Lane, a man so deeply in love that he willed death upon himself to be with his wife in the afterlife. And that’s where Aaron Jannetti, Jim Muir, Ricky Levitt and Ian Iott got the name for their band, Addison Lane. Or so they would like to say.

“Actually, I was looking at Google maps, and there’s Addison Street in Grove City, and we wanted something with lane,” said Muir, the 21-year-old vocalist from Copley, Ohio.

On Friday, Addison Lane performed at Bernie’s Distillery on High Street. It was an inspired performance with a nine-song, 50-minute set list and an encore: a crisp and electrified version of Radiohead’s “The Bends.” And despite a strong thunderstorm outside, by the time the first chord was played at about 11:20 p.m., the small but intimate venue was packed with a standing-room-only crowd.

The band didn’t disappoint. Beginning with the first note in their original “Burgundy” until the last note in “The Bends,” Addison Lane rocked out the basement at Bernie’s with a cerebral mix of flashy guitar riffs, tantalizing drum beats and fiery vocals. The music charged the audience full of energy, and it was clear that the band fed off the vibe.

“When the audience got into it, it became so much easier to get into the music,” said Levitt, 21-year-old lead guitarist.

Jannetti, the band’s drummer, echoed him.

“The audience was just amazing,” said the 20-year-old Poland, Ohio, native.

Indeed the electrified audience was not satisfied when the band finished its set with its oldest and most polished song “The Getaway.” Chants for an encore continued until the band came back and finished the night off with “The Bends.”

“The audience just connected with us,” said Muir, a junior in mechanical engineering. “And the stage was very close, so they could just get up next to us.”

Connecting with the audience is very important to Addison Lane, and its music is conducive to band-audience interaction. Since the band’s inception early last year, it has evolved into a hard rock mix between The Doors and Radiohead, but it strives for a unique sound.

“I think the distinct part of our music is that we all have a different feel to music,” Jannetti said. “It’s like we all put in our own little pieces of it.”

With its intense performances, Addison Lane is gaining in popularity. Right now, the band is working on its first album and has six songs already recorded. The band plans on spending a lot of the summer touring and has dates set up not only in metro Columbus, but also Toledo, Cincinnati and Cleveland.

All this information can be found on its Web sites, addisonlanerock.com and myspace.com/addisonlane, where band information and ticket pre-sales are also available. Addison Lane performs next on April 22 at 7 p.m. at the Basement.