Joe Ehrbar

At the remarkably yound age of 25, Geno Delafose, whose band hails from Eunice, La., has already racked up 17 years of performing experience.

The Academy of Dance is looking for area dancers experienced in jazz and ballet to perform at the Coca Cola Olympic City at the Olympic Games in Atlanta this summer. Dancers must be at least 13 and will be expected to pay their own transportation and lodging. Rehearsals will be throughout July. The dance group will be at the Olympics either July 28-31 or July 31-Aug.4.

Dirty Rotten Inbeciles play Ichabod's North on Monday.

Patrick Ball will play the Celtic harp next Thursday at The Met.

With so many first-rate bands popping up in the Northwest, it's often hard to keep up with them. Portland's Sugarboom has been carving out its own dark, swirling, psychedelic guitar rock for five years. But the four-piece combo, which plays Ichabod's North on Thursday, has yet to really garner the appreciation it sorely deserves.

Shoveljerk Friday, Feb. 16, The Met Never mind that Shoveljerk's song "Unwind" is all over the radio and the band's debut album "Swarm" is selling out across the region. And never mind all the other hype surrounding the band, which led to every seat in The Met being filled for Shoveljerk's record-release party Friday night. None of this means a thing if the band can't rock on stage. Taking a nod from Black Happy (three-quarters of Shoveljerk come from that band), playing live is what this Coeur d'Alene rock combo does best. The four won the crowd during opening chords of "Easy Target" and kept it through the final notes of the last encore, "What I Want."

The Humpers hail from Long Beach, Calif.

For Citizen Swing, release of the Spokane band's second album, "Deep Down," is a decided relief. In a way, the album, recorded in off-and-on fashion over the last year, marks the band's debut. Citizen Swing's first record, "Cure Me With the Groove," wasn't really a true representation of today's band. In fact, it wasn't even written by the five-piece unit. The album was composed entirely by its producers. Citizen Swing merely took instructions.

All nine Point of Grace singles have rocketed to No. 1 on the Christian charts.

Clubgoers complaining about the shortage of good rock shows in the area should not miss the Teen Angels, Skiploader and Lemons show at Outback Jack's Wednesday night. All three bands are the next wave of Northwest combos, primed to give dull mainstream rock (generally what MTV currently considers alternative) a massive jolt. Skiploader's first album for Geffen, "From Can Through String," will be in stores Feb. 13. Singer, guitarist and chief songwriter for the Portland unit, Tom Ackerman, feels a bit weary now that the album is on its way.

The dapper young lads from "felony flats" are up to no good again. That's right, the Makers are back with a third, eponymous album. The low-fi garage rockers play a record-release party at Ichabod's North tonight. With the group's latest 16-song pillage, available on LP and CD, the Makers celebrate their 17th release in just over two years. Without a doubt, they're the most prolific band around. "The Makers" was recorded in September by noted rock musician-producer Tim Kerr at Seattle's Egg Studio. With Kerr at the helm, it's obvious the Makers are finally settling into their own sound.

After nearly two years of construction, Ugly Rumours, the nightclub beneath the Mars Hotel, has finally opened its doors for business. And tonight, the newest Spokane hot spot is staging quite a rock show. The Classic Rock All Stars, which performed last summer at Playfair Race Course, will take the elevated stage at 10 p.m. For those of you who want soak in some nostalgia, you'd better hurry and purchase your tickets because, at press time, they were nearly sold out.

One of Spokane's strongest-drawing bands, Roadside Prophets, stayed dormant for most of last year. Thus, rumors that the band had broken up began to circulate. The rumors weren't true. The band plays El Toreador tonight, Outback Jack's on Saturday and Ichabod's North on Thursday. The absence from local clubs was due to personnel problems. Disbanding wasn't even on the minds of vocalist-guitarist Dan Gilboy and drummer-vocalist Pat Bulger.

Have you bought tickets for the Fabulous Thunderbirds concert at the Fort Spokane Brewery Wednesday? If not, you're too late. The show, one of the hottest to come to the local clubs in recent times, sold out a week ago. In fact, it took less than two days for the Fort Spokane Brewery to sell all the tickets. What's even more impressive is that they were going for $21 a pop.

Ever wondered what happened to Mother Load, one of the local scene's most significant bands? It seemed as though the powerhouse punk rock trio kind of just dropped out of sight. Well, it did. Last June, after six years together, Mother Load's three members - drummer Brian Parnell, guitarist/vocalist Scott Kellog and bassist/vocalist Willy Dringit (a.k.a. Geof) - parted ways. They didn't make a big fuss over their breakup; they didn't even stage a farewell show.

Local blues hound Too Slim and the Taildraggers happens to be this town's most ambitious and accomplished band. Yet the trio, outside of its rollicking fat sound, is also the quietest. The band - guitarist/vocalist Tim "Too Slim" Langford, Tom "The Stomp" Brimm and John "Midnight" Cage - doesn't brag about its 18 awards and nominations accrued over the last five years.

We've been in the era of the guitar rock bands for quite some time now. The country is swimming in aggressive guitar bands, sometimes tagged as punk, alternative, scrunge or pop. And you'd think with the glut of guitar-oriented bands piercing the mainstream that there would be no shortage of fertile ideas.

It's a tragic tale: Three young lads - Art, Jo and Dave - from the distant planet of Cynot 3 were joyriding through their solar system one day in Dave's dad's starship when, all of a sudden, the Cynotian star went supernova, wiping out everything in the system, including Cynot 3. The supernova hurled the boys (in suspended animation) and their borrowed starship through space for 3 trillion light years. The trio's journey into the unknown finally came to an end in 1991, when they crashed just west of Las Vegas ("that's where UFOs go," Art said in his biography).

Now that the Big Dipper is up for sale and will probably close in December, what better way to end an era and bring the house down than with a rock 'n' roll extravaganza. Three great punk bands- Melbourne, Australia's Cosmic Psychos and L.A.'s Lazy Cowgirls and Spokane's Fumes- will give the Big Dipper a proper, if irreverent, send-off, on Wednesday. If you've been waiting for a decent rock show to warm you up this November, this would be the one.

It's kind of hard to believe that Boston band Green Magnet School was signed for a few years to Seattle label Sub Pop and never once set foot in the Pacific Northwest. "This is our first time," said guitarist/vocalist Tim Shea from a stop in Arizona last week. Green Magnet School plays the Big Dipper on Sunday. You'd think the band would have made Seattle a regular stop.

The Spokane Symphony will perform the first Family concert of the season on Sunday at the Opera House at 2 p.m. The title of the concert is "Peter Vs. The Wolf," a sequel to the Sergei Prokofiev fairy tale "Peter And The Wolf."

Hundreds of people turned out for a good cause last Sunday at the Blue Dolphin in the Valley. The cause: a benefit concert for Europa Pizzaria and Bakery general manager Gina Brent, who is battling leukemia. Brent recently underwent bone marrow transplant surgery in Seattle.

Take this bit of advice: Head south to the Zoo in Pullman on Saturday night. Oh, you need a reason? Five words: The Five Fingers Of Funk.

For the last couple of years, Inflatable Soule has been waiting for its golden ticket to the big time. Major labels have been biting and the band has come close to signing. However, Inflatable Soule remains unsigned and singer/guitarist Peter Cornell couldn't be happier. "In the last three weeks, not one person from the band has called me up and said, 'Hey, have you heard from so and so at such and such label?"' said Cornell. "It's a nice break now not to have that happen.