Mark Miller of the pop-country band Sawyer Brown feels reassured when he looks out at concert crowds and sees people holding up signs with numbers like “70” and “52.”

The figures represent the number of Sawyer Brown concerts the fan has attended.

“I’ve seen some in the hundreds, but no 200s yet,” Miller said. “A lot of them are over 50.”

Miller said the signs are a tradition started soon after the band began touring. Fans who were proud of the number of concerts they had attended would hold up a sign.

The band, with special guests Wild Rose, will be looking for such signs in Augusta, where it will be performing 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, at the Civic Center.

Sawyer Brown, which has five members, has developed a legion of loyal fans since the group won on the syndicated TV show “Star Search” in 1983.

The fans keep returning to the concerts, as evidenced by the signs, even though the band has weathered a monumental problem: little radio air play.

The group, named after a Nashville street, is too pop for country music stations and too country for rock ‘n’ roll stations. So the five have relied on their frenzied, pulsating, unpredictable stage shows to maintain their popularity. They ignite audiences by dancing, jumping and whirling across the stage with supercharged energy.

They play upbeat, “good-time” music with a driving rhythm and tight vocals — all set off by brightly colored clothing.

After winning “Star Search” and splitting the $100,000 prize money five ways, the group began recording for Capitol Records a year later. Shortly after that, they were the opening act at Kenny Rogers’ concerts for 1 1/2 years, performing live for millions.

The Nashville-based band has had hit records along the way, including “Step That Step,” “The Race Is On,” “Shakin”‘ and “Leona.” They have released six albums, including the current “The Boys Are Back.”

“We are a legitimate act that drew people month after month and year after year regardless of whether we had a hit record out,” said Miller. “People knew they would see a show as entertainment value. Basically, we sold our records going door to door, doing 250 dates a year.”

He described their concerts as “intense, very intense. A friend of mine said it’s like being part of an event, like a huge party. That’s what we try to make it.”

Before winning “Star Search,” the group polished its act for two years as a “bar band” at various nightclubs throughout the country. On good nights they played five sets and on bad nights they did seven. They often had a “rowdy table” contest where the most uproarious table won a pitcher of beer.

For Miller, it was a new experience and a valuable one.

“I had never been in a bar until I played one,” he recalled.

“You learn that you can be a jukebox or you can demand their attention by entertaining them.”

Exposure on a much wider basis came when they joined Rogers on his concert tours.

“When we first got the call, I was so excited,” Miller said. “It was a dream come true. I was also scared to death.

“I remember the crowd going crazy and on the second night Kenny came out to see what all the commotion was about. He came in the dressing room and said we had a job as long as we wanted one.”

Sawyer Brown is one of the few bands that sign autographs after every show.

“We do them as long as it takes,” Miller said. “We feel like we owe it to the fans as the least we can do. People remember things like that.”