Savage Steve

Steve Bentley has played some trying gigs during his 16 years in local metal. At a rural Kansas club, he says, “a drunk guy having too much fun” stormed the stage brandishing a knife. Luckily, security intervened, and his band, Darkside, escaped unscathed.

In 2000, Darkside played an outdoor show in the parking lot of an Overland Park Hooters, braving subfreezing December temperatures to dramatize the plight of the homeless. But those conditions might pale compared with the scene on October 8, when Bentley’s new group, Ancient Creation, becomes the first live band to square off against the notoriously rowdy denizens of Shawnee karaoke destination The Red Balloon.

“I can only imagine,” Bentley says. “It should be pretty interesting.”

Bentley’s getting used to breaking in fresh venues. Within a month, Ancient Creation plays Island Bar and Grill in Lee’s Summit (Friday), Shooters in Blue Springs, American Icehouse, and J.C.’s House of Rock in Wichita. Whereas many heavy outfits stick to the standard rock-spot suspects, Bentley hustles to get his power-metal quintet into any space with a stage. By his count, El Torreon is the only area venue he has yet to play. (He was working to schedule a date right before that club went on hiatus.)

Bentley boasts one of the area’s most powerful wails. In Darkside, he filtered his tuneful delivery through an aggressive snarl that fit that band’s blunt attack. Ancient Creation, by contrast, focuses on dual guitars re-creating medieval melodies, and Bentley sings with ringing clarity between labyrinthine solos.

“With Darkside, we weren’t so, so heavy, but people would get wilder,” he says. “With Ancient Creation and how good these guitarists are, people just stare at them.”

For significant passages of each song, Bentley, too, becomes a spectator.

“We’ve talked about that at practice before, like, ‘What the hell am I gonna do?'” he says. “Basically, I just stand up there and throw my head around. And it’s also a good time to go hit the fog machine.”

With its man-made murkiness, dark lyrics (every song on its demo mentions evil, blood or death) and progressive licks, Ancient Creation should be well-equipped to confront what Bentley calls The Red Balloon’s “party crowd.” That is, as long as the band is prepared to play some Skynyrd and vows not to mess with the people’s Metallica.