Scary kids take a break from Warped Tour for CD release party
By KELLY WILSON
Get Out

Bottles of Miller High Life and pizza boxes litter a small practice room in Mesa's Saltmine studio where three of the members of East Valley screamo band Scary Kids Scaring Kids are kicking back.

Sunglasses cover lead singer Tyson Stevens' eyes as he sinks onto a sofa and strums on a guitar. Keyboardist Pouyan Akary, the band's most vigorous member, can barely sit still, and guitarist D.J. Wilson rocks back and forth in a chair.

SKSK, which also includes guitarists Chad Crawford and Steve Kirby and drummer Peter Costa, are preparing to play a few out-of-town gigs before jumping on this summer's Vans Warped Tour.

The band's longest tour to date will keep them on the road until mid-August.

“We've barely pushed three weeks on tour, so we're looking forward to this,’’ Akary says of the band, which Alternative Press named one of its ‘‘100 bands you need to know in 2005.’’

SKSK isn't a stranger to the Warped Tour. The band performed on the hometown date last year.

“It was one of the best shows ever,’’ Akary says. “We were on (the) Smart Punk (stage) and it was crazy. By the end, kids were shaking the tent and trying to tear the stuff down.’’

And although their best crowds are in the East Valley, Akary says the group also has large followings in Utah and New Mexico.

“They just go off out there,’’ Akary says. “The first time we played Albuquerque everybody was singing along. We couldn't believe it!’’

MORE THAN ONE GENRE

SKSK take a break from their summer tour and return to the East Valley on Friday for the CD release party for “The City Sleeps In Flames,” their Immortal Records debut.

“There's more than one type of genre on the album,’’ Stevens says of the 11 tracks, which he describes as rock and electronic. “All of the songs are different in their own way. We tried to make it appeal to more that just one genre of music.’’

Wilson warns people to get to the band's CD release party early.

“It's going to be packed,’’ he says. “We're going to have a couple of surprises up our sleeves. We always do.’’

Akary says the group shot a music video for “The Only Medicine” in California a few months ago.

“It was awesome,’’ he says. “We actually had like a ’50s movie set, like an old-town kind of thing. We got a lot of our friends to drive down and be extras in it. They put zombie makeup on and had a whole lot of fun.
‘‘We wanted to make a video that really conveyed our personalities, and I think we accomplished that. It's pretty goofy and fun.’’

Scary Kids Scaring Kids

With: A Change Of Pace, Rapid Fire, My Darling Murder, The Cover Up, Blessthefall and Palindrome
When: 6 p.m. Friday
Where: The Clubhouse Music Venue
1320 E. Broadway Road,
Tempe
Cost: $12
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