Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Gimmie An "F"...

If you've been to a UT football game in the past couple of years, you might have seen them parading around Fort Sanders or on campus. Every home football game, they dress in black and bravely march into a sea of orange, beating drums, blowing brass and woodwind instruments and chanting "You can't stop the Fort" and other assorted cheers.

Usually numbering 10 to 20 people, they're the Fort Sanders Community Marching Band, and like many ideas weird and great, they were born on a porch in Fort Sanders over some beer.

Tommy Bateman and his then-roommate Steve Clements thought their much loved but battered neighborhood could use its own cheering squad. "Fortunately, there were a lot of other people who also thought it was a good idea," says Bateman, who is a member of the Rockwells.

"We're presented with a unique opportunity where the atmosphere on certain days—in our case it's football—is almost carnivalistic anyway. Our neighborhood is overrun with people parking in our yards and hanging out all day. We're flooded with people. Instead of closing the blinds, it's much more fun to get out and have fun." The participants and instruments vary from game to game.

About an hour and a half before kickoff, the FSCMB marches around the Fort and then onto campus and back. "The most common reaction is a puzzled look. They don't understand what we're saying. Which is fine. We've gotten, 'You suck,' before. We've gotten cheers. What's fun is when we'll round a corner and hit a spot where people hang out every week...people that see us repeatedly who get the idea and cheer or request songs." Police officers have requested the Rocky theme.

Oddly enough, where the band seems most unwelcome is the stadium. "People are more easily annoyed the nearer you get to the stadium. We've had police tell us to get off school property, which is really strange, I thought."

While the black uniforms are a way of disassociating with teams, the marchers are not necessarily anti-football. Bateman says he usually tries to get back to watch the game on TV.

He would like to find other excuses to strike up the band. And, he'd like to involve more people and activities in the parades. "How great would it be to have six or seven people leading the way skate[board]ing or a whole section of acoustic guitar players. Spectacle is one of the points of it," he says.

"What we tell pretty much everyone we see is, 'Can you play anything? Whatever you have to contribute, pick up something and join us.'"

Behind the Music

AC Entertainment and 26.2 Music have formed a partnership and are now working out of their new offices on the seventh floor of the Arnstein Building. This could mean more shows for Knoxville and opportunities for its underappreciated music scene, including the possibility of a music festival.

AC Entertainment—headed by Ashley Capps—was formed in 1991 and has made a name promoting concerts and festivals around the country. Having a large promoter (who really knows and loves the music) living here has meant Knoxville has seen a lot of great shows most cities this size don't get. Aside from booking at local theaters and some clubs, Capps also spearheaded the Hot Summer Nights and Sundown in the City concert series, the latter of which expanded to 25 weeks this summer.

Formed in 1996 by (former AC employee) Ted Heinig, 26.2 manages two local groups (Gran Torino and St. Somewhere) and books for a number of acts at clubs around the country. Heinig says 26.2 books at clubs all over the South, Midwest and East Coast (and now including Blue Cats, which AC used to book).

The unexpected success of the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn., this year (the concert sold out without any traditional advertising and lead to a double CD and DVD) left Capps wanting to expand his business. He'd like to possibly make the festival a tour next year.

"We were really grappling with how to grow and tackle some of these opportunities without damaging our core business," Capps says. "I needed some help on the booking end and someone with experience booking, because it's a hard job."

High on Capps' to-do list is starting an annual Knoxville music festival—something along the lines of Asheville's Bele Chere or Memphis' Beale Street Music Festival. "The time is right for Knoxville to have its own festival with our own identity," Capps says. He hopes he can put together the festival, located somewhere downtown, for next year or the year after.

Go.

Thursday: Dance the night away with the Wailers at Blue Cats.

Friday: Get ready for Halloween by watching the Ghosts channel Tom Waits, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Brian Wilson at the Pilot Light.

Saturday: Show that special someone how diversely cultured you are—check out Dining With Durang at Theatre Central.

Sunday: Why sit home and listen to the radio when you can go to Patrick Sullivan's and hear The Americana Café live with Leslie Woods?

Monday: Carve a pumpkin.

Tuesday: Buy eggs and toilet paper.

Wednesday: Feel the Recycled Percussion of buckets, oil drums, cans and pans at Pellissippi State's Performing Arts Center.

—Emma "bang the drum" Poptart with Joe Tarr