The truth is, I know I'm not exactly part of the target audience -- teenage and female -- when it comes to Tokio Hotel. But I still don't quite get it. A brash blend of pop, rock, hair product and mascara has produced two German albums and last year's English-language Scream, which has yet to yield big sales or any major radio hits in the United States. But thanks to the androgynous appeal of 19-year-old lead singer Bill Kaulitz, the group has amassed a frenzied fanbase that rivals those of more commercially successful acts like the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus.
They were out in full force Wednesday afternoon at Cactus Music, which hosted a Tokio Hotel autograph session that drew fans from all over the Texas. (The band stopped by Hot Hits 95.7 FM earlier in the day.) The Cactus line snaked through the store, into the adjoining room and spilled outside onto the sidewalk.
Hoodies and Hot Topic wristbands were everywhere. Jaelly Longoria, 18, and Claudia Chagolla, 19, drove almost six hours from Alamo, located in the Rio Grande Valley, in a convertible covered with German words of TH adoration. They wore matching purple tank tops and were second in line. "We left at 1:52 a.m. exactly. We drove out from a Wal-Mart, from buying munchies. We've been driving all night," Chagolla says.