Venue explores the sensitive side of alt-rock

In a small living room at a dead end on E. Fifth St., The Tribute rocked out for a small crowd. The members of the Bloomington band danced and hopped in the confined space as singer Dan Patton belted out and screamed lyrics over the hard rocking music. \nThe band will recreate this upbeat scene with The Stepford Five Friday at Rhino's All-Ages Music Club. \nThe Stepford Five is returning to Bloomington after playing at Rhino's last summer. The band, hailing from Columbus, Ohio, is looking forward to returning to Bloomington. \nTim Minneci, The Stepford Five's bassist, says the show at Rhino's was great and they had a lot of fun. He hopes that the crowd will be bigger since school is in session, but regardless of the turnout, he says he will enjoy himself because he just loves to play. \nJason Dziak, Stepford Five's guitarist, describes the band's style as guitar driven, layered music. \n"We try to balance writing rock or pop songs, but take it a step further and try to do it a little different," he says. "We make it more of a roller coaster ride from the start of the song to the end."\nConcert reviews have compared the band's sound to the Foo Fighters, The Replacements, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Afghan Wigs, Dziak says. \n"We're influenced by tons of different bands," he explains. "I don't think it's ever possible for one of those to come out too strong."\nKeith Jenkins, The Stepford Five's lead singer, says from the beginning he has always classified their music as straight-ahead rock. \nThe Tribute offers concertgoers a different sound than that of The Stepford Five. Bob Nugent, the entertainment booker for Rhino's, describes The Tribute's sound as emo punk, poppy, catchy and keyboard driven. \nPatton, a junior, says his band writes songs with plenty of emotion, but isn't quite sure of the label "emo." \n"If emo is emotional music, then that's what we are," Patton says. "Almost all music is emotional."\nThe term "emo" is being more frequently used to describe bands and can mean different things to different people. \nNugent says in the mid 1980s, emo was used to describe emotional punk rock music with a message, but now it is sometimes applied to a CD with seventeen songs about how much a guy misses his girlfriend. It's an industry term that is a broad generalization about a broad style of music, much like techno or rap, Nugent says. \nThe boys in The Tribute describe their sound like a harder Weezer with female vocals in back and a keyboard, says Erin Cory, a senior and keyboardist. Patton says bands like Weezer, Alkaline Trio and The Rentals have influenced their style. He says recently a fan told him that his band sounds like The Cars on steroids.\nPeople coming to the show Friday will see The Tribute jump around a lot on stage and put on a high-energy show, much like their performance in their living room. The band started playing shows at the house -- or what they refer to as the "Dead End" -- after they couldn't perform at Moonstruck Chocolates, Cory says. \n"It's our practice space," she says. "It's really homey. We play really well there."\nCory says The Tribute, which has only been around for approximately a year, is getting more confident in themselves and putting on better shows.\n"The boys are always energetic and jump around a lot," she says. "I've been dancing more lately." \nThe upcoming Friday night show came about after The Tribute e-mailed Nugent about doing a show at Rhino's. He agreed to set up a show for them. \n"I'm pretty kind to bands that have played here before and local bands," Nugent says. He remembered The Stepford Five had played at Rhino's last year and asked the bands if they'd like to play together because he thought they would compliment each other. \nNugent says he doesn't expect any moshing to erupt at this concert. He expects the people at the show will appreciate the music and just have a good time. \nDziak says people can expect a high-energy show from his band. \n"We've got some songs that are mid tempo or a bit slow," he says. "I think the majority of the stuff is in your face and pretty rocking. We try to have fun up there and hopefully people have fun watching it." \nNugent wants people to reevaluate the music performed at Rhino's.\n"A lot of college students don't know about us," he says. "I want people to come out and support local music that's original and good"