'Rock Show Showdown' hosts inaugural event

A dozen fans moshed on stage at Rhino's Youth Center & All-Ages Music Club Friday night as the shirtless lead singer of metal band Sentinel performed a set that one audience member said made her feel "violated from the inside out." Another band played a medley that included the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" theme song, "Gettin' Jiggy Wit it" and "Hey Jude," and four other bands competed in a battle of the bands that was more than just a Friday night for 20 telecommunications majors. The "Rock Show Showdown" was their final class project.\nClass was in session Friday night for members of T451: Creative Industries. The class was advertised in the course description as a way to present "new media theory in action -- making things up as we go along. It will be a thrill ride." \nAssistant professor Mark Deuze, who teaches the class, said it has been a fun way to learn how marketing theory works in practice and help support local acts. He described the class as a kind of "schizo" setup with half the class period devoted to books about marketing and media and the rest dedicated to brainstorming. Class members picked the bands they wanted to represent, promoted them and put together the Friday night band showdown.\n"I was very pleased with the evening and was particularly impressed with the way my students collectively took responsibility for the evening," Deuze said. "Manning the door and organizing ticket sales, setting up merchandise stands for the bands, up to and including announcing every band. Most of them came in at 6 p.m. and stuck around until the venue closed. Amazing!"\nClass members petitioned for concert-goers to vote for the band they represented to prove they had promoted their band effectively. Whichever band got the most signatures by their name won free recording time at a local studio. Metal act Sentinel won the contest by just one vote.\nIt was Harmony Educational Center ninth-grader Sara Jancosec's first time at Rhino's, and despite not knowing any of the bands, she was dancing and getting into the music. With pink, black and blonde hair up in a "Japanese rock star" hairdo complemented by a rainbow shirt, rainbow bracelets and yellow shoes written on with marker, she stood out in the crowd. She had Sentinel singer Zach Norris sign her shoe after the show. \nWhile more than a dozen fans created a mosh pit on stage with Sentinel, freshman Nicole O'Neal's face looked like she was watching a horror movie alone in the dark.\n"I'm terrified of this band," O'Neal said. "I feel like I've been violated from the inside out. I'm not very big on metal." \nDeuze was smiling throughout the show and said he hopes the class becomes a staple in the telecommunications department.\n"I definitely want to do this class again one way or another," Deuze said. "It has inspired me to come up with more similar classes where telecommunications students use their media skills to engage with local community initiatives"