Out and About

Drain STH Live

Sunday night's concert by all-femme Swedish metal band, Drain STH was proof positive that there is still a thriving local metal scene. There were plenty of new faces at the show—and more importantly, the stalwart headbangers of old came out en masse.

Upon my 10 p.m. arrival at Moose's Music Hall, I was dismayed to find out that opening bands Dreve and Double Drive had already finished their sets. Locals Dreve are rumored to be in the process of making an alliance with a major label, so I was hoping to experience local rock history in the making. Everyone in attendance said that they had put on a really good show.

There has been a bit of debate over just what the STH in Drain STH stands for. At a local record store I'd heard that it stood for "straight to hell," but a look on the worldwide web revealed that it was just an acronym for Stockholm. Apparently, there was more than one band called Drain in the world. But since they're a metal band, I'll choose straight to hell anyway. It just sounds cooler and darker and, well, more metal.

The ladies of Drain STH delivered more than enough fist banging mania to make the evening a success, that's for sure. Playing for a crowd that was probably 90 percent male, Stockholm's nuns of darkness looked fetching in their tight black clothes. Sure, they all looked like models, but the band was far from being all style and no substance. They put on a tight, professional show that was almost flawless.

Drain's Nordic orientation punctuated their music with a pronounced umlaut. Their music mixed old school metal with modern industrial and goth sounds, and the band's icy vocals fit the style perfectly. The best part was hearing the lead singer talk between songs. Her voice was really low, sounding kind of like a metal version of Nico and solidifying her old world presence.

Watching the crowd at a metal show is almost always as much fun as watching the band. Sunday's high scoring headbangers included a guy wearing leather chaps and a couple of guys with long, curly perm hairdos. I suppose that look never went out of style. And no matter how many metal shows you attend, you can always learn a new variation on the time honored tradition of giving the goat.

Scary Radio

The Knoxville Museum of Art and the University of Tennessee's radio WUOT have teamed up to bring you an on-air production of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The show is performed by children, ages 10-13, from the Knoxville area who participated in a week-long summer enrichment program that gave them a first hand experience in the always-exciting world of radio production.

The kids played the characters in the story and created the background sound effects. Gloria Colquitt of the KMA taught the kids to get comfortable with speech, lines, and projecting their voices. Mark Kiser of WUOT edited the children's lines and chirping, gobbling, and hooting sound effects. By putting in modern-day editing capabilities, Kiser has been producing the material the children recorded during the summer. "The children should be really surprised by the final product," says studio director Carol Cruzan," This experience gave the children a chance to find out how labor intensive it is to get a finished product."

The final production will air on 91.9 WUOT FM's storytelling program, Mumblypeg, on Saturday, October 30 from 12 to 12:30 p.m.

Snack Snagged

It has finally happened. A big shot Chicago record label has spotted the hot punk talent in K-town's midst and signed Kid Snack (of which our own reporter John "Swifty" Sewell is a member). The Snack will start recording on Double Zero Records—run by former Capitol Recording artists The Smoking Popes—sometime early in 2000 with the album slated for a May release. Kid Snack is also featured on a new pop punk compilation My So Called Punk Rock Life. Gosh, now we can all say we knew them when.

A 'weenie Week

Thursday: Bill Scarlett Trio at Lucille's. Jazzy.

Friday: Mustard with Luck and John Lousteay at Patrick Sullivan's. Rocky.

Saturday: Tritones at Java. Swingy.Sunday: Short Bus with Magpie Suite at Helmet Head. More rocky.Monday: Casey Jones at Hanna's Café. Singer/songwritery.

Tuesday: Tuesday Night Trivia at Bird's Eye View. Jeopardy-y.Wednesday: Karl Shifflett and Big Country Show at Barley's. Old-timey.

—Zippy "Flu-fog" McDuff