The Dempseys in overdrive

Tonight you might be sitting there listening to The Dempseys' brand of high-test rockabilly, a pleasing cocktail in hand, enjoying the good musicianship when everything suddenly accelerates into overdrive. Joe Fick mounts his horizontal standup bass and becomes Jim Carrey on acid. Brad Birkedahl starts "chicken pickin'" his paisley Telecaster and babyfaced drummer Ron Perrone Jr. kicks the party into riot gear.

The Dempseys must be experienced to be appreciated.

Sweat and steam are their natural environment. Sometimes they take turns punishing each other's instruments.

Fick seems like a normal person between sets. "If he was like that all the time he wouldn't have the energy for the show," Birkedahl said in a phone interview from the band's Memphis home base.

Single and in their mid-20s, The Dempseys like their cars and their music loud, fast and real. Birkedahl drives a '59 Ford Skyliner, the hardtop convertible. Fick's ride is a '64 Ford Fairlane. Perrone rebels in a 2001 Dodge Durango.

Like Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd, they named their band for a teacher they had in school. Unlike Lynyrd Skynyrd or most other bands, The Dempseys waste their time on stage standing around. "We're young, energetic and skinny," Birkedahl says. "We might as well hop around and swap instruments. ... We found that keeps everybody's attention."

All three grew up in the Tacoma, Wash., area. Fick and Birkedahl formed The Dempseys in junior high school with another drummer. When the drummer left to go to college, they asked Perrone to join. They played pop songs from the '80s and '90s in the beginning, but Birkedahl began throwing in Elvis tunes.

He grew up listening to his father's old Elvis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash records. "My dad would still play that stuff on the stereo," he said. "I took a liking to it.

"... It's the stripped-down sound of it. Guitar, bass and no drums with real rockabilly," Birkedahl says. "It has a rockin' feel."

The Dempseys' CD, "Drinkin' Songs for Your Grandparents!" includes originals like Fick's "Back to the Doghouse" and Birkedahl's "Beer Goggle Boggle" and the covers "White Lightnin'" and "Drinkin' Wine Spo-dee-Odee."

Until recently, The Dempseys were the house band at Elvis Presley's Memphis on Beale Street. Now they're playing outside Memphis more. They just returned from a six-day rockabilly festival in Green Bay, Wisc., that presented 150 bands.

New York City, Chicago and Seattle love rockabilly, Birkedahl says, but the music has broad popularity. "There's definitely a scene almost anywhere."

People often ask The Dempseys if they dream of making it big. "We think we have made it big," Birkedahl says.

They were on the cover on the New York Times Magazine for a feature about '50s fashion. They have played in France and soon are heading for Japan. They play the music they love five or six nights a week in one of the best music towns on Earth.

Birkedahl ran the mile in high school. The Dempseys expend about the same amount of energy every night, he says.

But you don't get the adrenaline rush running the mile."

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182