Buskirk-Chumley switches from cultured to countercultured for a night

The Thursday before students headed out of town for spring break, Bloomington experienced a shockwave of heavy metal at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, a place usually reserved for more traditional art forms.\n"I wanted to give the Bloomington metal scene some recognition. I wanted to have it here (Buskirk -Chumley) because it has a big stage and a concert atmosphere," said event coordinator Mark Reeves, founder and owner of Reeves Entertainment, the main supervisor of the event.\n"When I was in bands, it was always great to play in a theater."\nBut Bloomington's first heavy metal concert may be its last, since Reeves plans to move his business to Tampa, Fla. by this time next year.\nThe crowd enjoyed the chance to see live heavy metal rock in Bloomington.\nBlack Earth claimed the prize for the musicmanship contest, audience participation and stage presence. Of the Son was runner-up and Runik took third place.\n"I think everyone was great," said Black Earth guitarist Travis Cider. "I think that we won just because we have more experience than the other bands."\nDespite the common perception of heavy metal as brainless and brash, its history has a link to classical music and the theater. KISS started the show in the 1970s with their elaborate theatrics. It was followed by symphonic-like song introductions and interludes driven by the acoustic guitars of Metallica in the 1980s and Marilyn Manson and the rise of black metal of the 1990s. \nBlack metal is a fusion of death metal with keyboards, bringing in sounds similar to horror movie scores and haunting classical music, like Holtz's "Mars-Bringer of War," Bach's gothic organ in "Tocatta in D Minor" and Mozart's melancholy "Sonata in B Minor." Current black metal bands like Dimmu Borgir and Mushroomhead are well-known for their theatrics on stage and in their videos, similar to Stravinski's and Nijinski's infamous riotous ballet, "The Rite of Spring."\nDespite this current trend of heavy metal theatrics, the Brawl displayed more subtle stage shows. \nThe theatrics of the Brawl was one of three categories judged in the competition. All five bands had elements of creepiness created by their light shows. Eve's Revenge had a short dabble of strobe-lighting while champions Black Earth shrouded their brooding introduction in near darkness. But not all of the theatrics were serious. \nIn a lighthearted play on words during the show, The Exploding Curve used cardboard boxes wrapped in paper and bows with free comic books and old VHS movies as stage props.\n"This was a joke on the category of stage 'presents.' We thought we would get rid of our junk," said Mike Jeffers, vocalist for The Exploding Curve.\nThe crowd didn't become restless during set changes because of a shared four-piece drumset provided by Reeves Entertainment.\n"Otherwise it would be a boring show. The 10-minute changes, you can't beat that," said Reeves Entertainment employee EJ Unsburger.\nRunik opened with an old-fashioned fusion of jazz, blues and metal, with a loyal group of fans providing the evening's only mosh pit. Next came The Exploding Curve with stinging metal-core, followed by Eve's Revenge with their succinct hardcore metal songs. Following them was Black Earth, drawing a large crowd of headbangers with their southern biker-gang style of power metal. \nConcluding the concert was Of The Son, a group with a Christian heavy metal sound with two members formerly of the local secular band, Subzid. The band brought a hard but non-vulgar sound and a large group of young Christians.\nJon Ridens, Of the Sun guitarist and former Subzid guitarist, said the show's success was twofold.\n"This new band gives us a chance to give praise to God and still rock on"