By Dana Drazenovich

When St. Cloud last saw the Wallflowers, it was December 1997, the year after their quadruple-platinum Grammy award-winning second album, "Bringing Down the Horse," was released.

Wallflowers mania was at its peak. "One Headlight" was on the charts. So was "Sixth Avenue Heartache." "Bringing Down the Horse" had slowly gained momentum before all of a sudden breaking on the national music scene in a big way. The band developed a huge following. The show at St. Cloud State University sold out the 6,000-capacity Halenbeck Hall.

Three years later, the Wallflowers are back for a return visit with a concert Friday at Halenbeck Hall. This time around, they're out touring to support their new CD, "Breach."

If you missed out on the last concert, and the one Nov. 24 at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, this is your chance to catch the Wallflowers live, because tickets are still available for Friday's performance.

And it sounds like those who are there are in for a good show.

"We have a great set. We've been dying to get to the point where we have three records to play from. Now it's like,'Let's do that. Let's do this,'" said keyboard player Rami Jaffee. "Now it's like we have so many songs to choose from."

Expect to hear a little from the first CD and a lot from "Bringing Down the Horse" and "Breach," and a few songs by other artists.

"We've been doing some cool covers, too," Jaffee said.

Examples: Blur's "Song 2," (the "Woo hoo" song), their version of David Bowie's "Heroes" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who, whom the Wallflowers opened a couple shows for recently at Madison Square Garden.

Since the release of "Breach," the Wallflowers, and songwriter and lead singer Jakob Dylan in particular, have received a lot of media coverage, including a cover story in "Rolling Stone."

Much of the media attention that has accompanied the October release of "Breach" has centered around Jakob's lyrics, specifically how they might relate to his father, Bob Dylan. And because Jakob has talked a little about his dad in recent interviews -- something he did little of until now -- their relationship has been the subject of much press.

But those who listen beyond the lyrics will likely hear some musical evolution, as well.

"Just reading some reviews, I notice it just seems like some people say its just a lot of the same," Jaffee said, "but when I was in the studio I was thinking it's totally different."

Dylan remains the group's primary songwriter and, as with past releases, he brought his song ideas to the band, and then Jaffee, bass player Greg Richling, drummer Mario Calire and guitarist Michael Ward added their parts to create the whole sound. But the "Breach" sessions took some new directions.

For example, Jaffee used only two keyboards in the studio for "Bringing Down the Horse." But it was a whole different approach on "Breach."

"We never really had like a, 'Oh this is our direction now,' but still, being in there, four years later, I mean I had all these old keyboards in there ... . I mean, I used like 20 different keyboards compared with two of them I used before. Even the way Greg played bass, certain things were different," Jaffee said.

A few of his favorites: " 'Up from Under' -- it's kind of a mellow song, but it's amazing. I hope people don't pass over it because it's not rockin' out," he said. Also listen for "Baby Bird," the hidden track after "Bird Cage."

And if this CD doesn't immediately go multiplatinum, if it doesn't create the multiple megahits that "Bringing Down the Horse" did, Jaffee said the Wallflowers are OK with that, Jaffee said. Their goal is to be a career band like groups such as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, not a boy band one-hit wonder.

Petty and the Heartbreakers, for example, put out their first album in 1976 and have several multiplatinum albums and music awards to their name. Some of their many releases have been bigger than others, but for 23 years they have remained among rock's most respected, critically acclaimed and popular bands.

"I can only hope that we can be like that -- every once in awhile hit a little jackpot and at least have a career. We just want to play music. We don't want to sell 6 million records and then go away," Jaffee said.

The Wallflowers took four years to release a new CD because "Bringing Down the Horse" kept them in demand for concerts for a long time, and they decided to ride the groove.

"You never want to say no to the booking agent saying they want you back in St. Cloud," Jaffee said. "And we're not going to say no. We're just not like that."

Fame, after all, can be a fleeting thing, and the music industry can be a fickle one.

As Jaffee put it: "You can be playing to sell-out crowds, or you can not be playing at all."

This is not a band that achieved instant fame. The Wallflowers' first CD, a 1992 self-titled release, didn't do well, initially selling only about 40,000 copies.

The band virtually broke up, leaving Dylan and Jaffee the only two original members.

The band left its first label, Virgin Records, and then signed with Interscope. "Bringing Down the Horse" got off to a slow start, as well. But then things started happening.

"There's been a few little points," Jaffee said. "Like, I remember we were just in the middle of our tour for 'Bringing Down the Horse' -- I mean, we were touring and 'Sixth Avenue Heartache' was on the radio, and it was selling OK, very small, almost like the first record but just slowly building, and then 'One Headlight' started getting (a lot of radio play.)

"It was in Montreal, and all of a sudden it was, like, crazy. They were screaming. It was like 'What?' And everyone knows every lyric.

"And I was like, 'OK, that's just Canada. But it was the same in Philadelphia," he said.

"And it literally happened, like, overnight, everyone was going gaga over us."

But the Wallflowers didn't let that go to their heads.

"We're pretty much all centered people...," Jaffee said.