Mike "Puffy" Bordin, the wiry drummer for Faith No More, is sitting on a curb outside New York City's Ritz, chin supported by his fist, a dreadlocked version of Rodin's Thinker. He squints up at a teenager who has spent the last ten minutes harassing him for free tickets to tonight's show. Bordin, who's been dragged around mercilessly by Faith No More's publicist since nine this morning, is tired, hungry and especially cranky. Still, he's making an effort to be polite.

"See that girl over there?" Bordin asks, waving a hand toward Faith No More's tour bus. "She's a good friend of ours. We've known her for seven years. Seven years! She doesn't have tickets to the show, either."

The fan hangs around for another few minutes, then disappears. Jim Martin, Faith No More's guitarist, departs for the band's hotel. The rest of the band members set out for a Chinese restaurant a few blocks away.

They've only taken a few steps when the same annoying cretin pops out from behind a lamppost. He lopes along behind the band for about a block, until it's clear that no dinner invitation is forthcoming. Finally, he skulks off down a side street.

Once he's out of earshot, Bordin sighs. "You know," he says glumly, "it's never been my nature to tell strangers to fuck off. Maybe I'd better learn how."

Six months ago, any member of Faith No More could've walked down a busy street unrecognized. Today, corralled by sharp-eyed strangers in airports and shopping malls, waylaid by autograph seekers outside hotels and concert halls, they're at that crossroads reached by countless other performers who weren't careful what they wished for. Eight years and three albums after they first emerged in San Francisco, the members of Faith No More are faced with the unsettling possibility that the anonymity they strove for years to overcome wasn't the curse they thought it was.

In early 1990, Faith No More was still trying to break out of cult status; the band's third album, The Real Thing, released in June 1989, had already disappeared from the Billboard charts. But things started to change in late February. After the band received an attention-getting Grammy nomination for Best Heavy Metal Performance, The Real Thing reentered the charts at Number 188. Then, in March, when MTV began airing the arty video for the single "Epic," The Real Thing began to move steadily. In late July, the album cracked the Top Twenty and was certified gold. It's still climbing.