Just ask Russell Crowe, fresh off his star turn in Gladiator.

In the film, he survives a tussle with a tiger as the slave moving up the ranks of the Roman entertainment business.

Now Crowe gets to try out the real-life music business equivalent when his band, 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts, takes to the stage at Stubb’s BBQ in Austin, Texas, August 4, 11 and 18.

Tickets for the sold-out shows are garnering bids averaging about $100 each on the Internet auction site eBay, and reports say the band will record a live album during the stand.

Crowe plays guitar, sings, and is one of the principle songwriters for the four-piece outfit, which has been around since the mid-‘90s. The group has released four records in Australia.

The band has toured Australia sporadically in between Crowes’ film obligations, but hasn’t had much stage time in the States. TOFOG did play a sold-out gig at the Johnny Depp-owned Viper Room in Los Angeles back on January 8, but how hard is it for a movie star’s band to sell out at a movie star-owned club in Tinseltown?

The test will come at Stubb’s, where at least a few real Texans will be in attendance.

What can people who bid triple-digits for tickets on eBay expect?

The band’s Web site describes TOFOG as “Rock & Roll!!!,” adding, “well I could say Australian/lyrical/folk/blues-based rock, but that would just make it sound more interesting!” The sample MP3 of the Australian band sounds pretty much like standard good-time pub fare.

And about the odd band name – the Web site offered an interesting explanation that will make perfect sense to film afficionados: “The name actually came from an ADR (analog dialogue replacement) sheet from the movie ‘Virtuosity’ These are scripts for when voices and sounds are over-dubbed in post production. The script in question was for the over dubbing of a fight scene and, as film time is measured in feet, the required sounds for the scene were written as…You guessed it, 30 odd foot of grunts.”