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A few days ago, Daryl Palumbo was wandering around St. Louis while touring with his band, Head Automatica. He was wondering how to get something mailed to him. It needed to arrive overnight, he said, and it needed to be kept cold.

Generally speaking, the only equipment musicians like to keep in the fridge is beer. But Palumbo suffers from a rare and unpredictable illness called Crohn's disease, and the medication he takes requires refrigeration. Without it, he could end up in the hospital. That's happened on tour before, and Palumbo doesn't want it to happen again.

"To do my job, I must tour. I love touring," he says. "Why do I have to be the one that can't do it?"

Tonight, Head Automatica plays its first Long Island show since August 2004. In a perfect world, the band would be hugely successful, selling millions of records on the strength of its catchy dance-rock and high-energy live shows. But Palumbo's recurring health problems have stalled its momentum. This evening's show at The Crazy Donkey in Farmingdale promises to be a cathartic homecoming for Head Automatica after nearly two years of false starts and dashed hopes.

From punk to dance funk

Palumbo, a skinny, fidgety 27-year-old from Bellmore, is a familiar figure to punk and emo aficionados. His previous band, Glassjaw, formed in 1994, built a small but loyal following by hammering out smarter-than-average hardcore. Palumbo became a cult hero thanks to his yowling voice and demonic stage presence.

So it came as a surprise when, in early 2003, he began fronting a flashy, flamboyant dance band called Head Automatica. Seemingly overnight, Palumbo went from the mosh pit to the dance floor, playing songs like "Dance Party Plus" and "Disco Hades II." Former Glassjaw member Larry Gorman provided the slippery but aggressive rhythms, and Palumbo rounded out the lineup with keyboard player Jesse Nelson, guitarist Craig Bonich and bassist Jarvis Morgan Holden.

"Glassjaw was pretty much pure, post-teen, suburban fury," Palumbo explained after forming Head Automatica. "I wanted not to be angry anymore."

Head Automatica's blistering debut, "Decadence" (Warner Bros.) came out in August 2004, with production by hip-hop DJ Dan the Automator. It was loaded with hooks, and the single "Beating Heart Baby" was later remixed by veteran studio wiz Chris Lord-Alge as a single. At the time, dance-rock was in vogue among New York hipsters, and Head Automatica seemed ready to bring it to the pop-punk masses.

The group landed some high-profile touring slots, including opening for The Used and playing at the Curiosa Festival. But Palumbo's illness flared up several times, and tours were postponed or cut short. "It's just such a bummer," Palumbo said last summer between relapses. "I love my life. There's nothing I don't like about my life. Except one thing."

That one thing is a mysterious illness called Crohn's disease, an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that causes various symptoms, including chronic internal bleeding. Left untreated, it can result in a fatal infection. Surgeries to remove portions of the intestines are not always successful, and Palumbo says he's had several. According to Dr. Tracey Arnell, an assistant professor of surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Crohn's disease is relatively rare, affecting perhaps one person in 100,000. Its cause is unknown. It's also incurable.

"It's not what you eat, it's not what you do, it's not anything that you can control," Arnell says. "It's just something that sort of happens."

Surviving on the road

Palumbo says he tries to get plenty of sleep, eat well and avoid stress - not easy to do while on the road. Since his first bout with the disease as a SUNY Purchase freshman, he has taken a variety of medicines ("Too many names to even get into," he says.) but they don't always work. "As I sit here in our hotel in Lexington, Ky., I can't help but feel terrible for falling ill and canceling some shows," he wrote in a statement while touring last summer. "We'll all get to rock together soon."

"He's a strong dude with a really strong personality," says Palumbo's longtime friend Vinnie Caruana of the band I Am the Avalanche. "The thing that gets him down is when it has to do with the band. When he has to cancel England for the fourth time, he gets really bummed out. Because this is what he does, and it's all he'll ever do."

Keyboardist Nelson admits the botched tours can be discouraging. "This band's been let down so many times," he says. "Basically the only way for us to survive is to be on the road. And you can kind of see that in our performances. Every night when we play, it's like it's our last."

Still, Head Automatica remains not only intact but remarkably active. In the past year, the band wrote new material at a manic pace, stockpiling more than 50 songs. Its second album, "Popaganda" (due out June 6), heads in another unexpected direction, with nods to early American soul, Palumbo says. And the choice of producer Howard Benson (Papa Roach, Hoobastank, All American Rejects) shows that the band still has mainstream success on its mind - and possibly in its future.

"Music is all that I have," Palumbo says. "You have to keep fighting. When that's all you got, that's all you got."