Will Pugh doesn’t look like he should be onstage. In his pale blue crewneck shirt and dirty jeans, he looks like any shy, anonymous teenager who wandered over to Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel after finishing Friday classes at one of the schools in Providence.

But give Pugh a microphone and his whole demeanor changes. As frontman for Cartel, a pop-punk/rock band out of Atlanta labeled as everyone’s latest “guilty pleasure,” it’s clear that Pugh, who also plays guitar on some songs, loves the attention.

Cartel followed Like Lions, the opening band on the “Screaming Babies Tour,” headlined by the definitive preteen pop-punk band, The Starting Line. Hidden in Plain View and Gatsby’s American Dream broke up the pop atmosphere of the night, adding a harder edge to the mix.

With only a half an hour to please the rabid crowd, Cartel rushed through its set, starting out with “Luckie St.,” the wintry anthem you can’t help but sing along to. Cartel also ripped through the band’s first single and MTV2’s latest video hit, “Honestly,” early in the set, to the delight of the crowd.

Focusing specifically on songs from 2005’s Chroma, Pugh’s pitch-perfect voice was filled with an undeniable passion, complimented by throbbing guitar riffs and fast-paced drumming through songs like “Matter of Time” and “Runaway.”

While it was obvious the crowd was filled with Cartel fans, the band failed to establish a good connection with the audience, partly because of the rushed set and partly because of microphone issues that made it difficult to understand what Pugh said once he stopped singing.

Still, Cartel’s growing underground fan base managed to sing along to every song, making its devotion most obvious during “Say Anything (Else),” when the band stayed silent, leaving Pugh to sing a cappela, backed only by the voices of the fans.

The intense response from the crowd lasted through the entire set, even dragging The Starting Line’s Kenny Vasoli out from backstage. Before launching into the final song, “Burn This City Down,” Pugh summed the night up perfectly: “Looks like we’re going to have to come back here with a headlining tour.”