Variety of music to rock to

I sat down recently with the owners of Pitter's Lounge to talk about something that's kept me in awe for a while: the metal following in this community.

Many of the bands we feature in SE Live are of the southern rock or rock or country persuasion. Without thinking I (shamefully, horribly and pledge no longer to) plug the majority of music fans into those categories. Then I'm pleasantly surprised when I see loads of people show up for an Avenged Sevenfold concert or flood to a Thorlock show.

I realized during our conversation that I had disregarded an important word: music. To be a music fan means to appreciate many genres of music, hence the pockets of fans that explode when their type of band hits the stage. A glance at the calendar reveals Pitters to be that stage no matter what band it is.

The acts there ricochet around the musical field like pinballs lighting up the bumpers of reggae, rock and metal. J.J. Seabaugh, who I guess you could call the pinball wizard, makes it a point to satisfy more specific tastes.

The most recent example is the Motograter show Tuesday. The band brings its homemade "motograter" to concerts to produce a deep bass sound. The members also wear tribal style body paint for concerts. But then Aug. 26, the cyberfunk band Mouth and the Monstars will play its progressive rock and jazz fusion with less metal and more jam band feel.

In music, the logic really doesn't work out that if the majority of the concerts in a town are one genre, the majority of people in that town would be fans of only that genre.