The room was dark and cavernous. An amplifier bled a steady wall of static. Against this, one single tone rang out from another amp and echoed almost infinitely. Then, hesitantly, another.

The keyboardist hunched over his box-like keyboard staring intently as if reading some ancient text. A shrill buzzing swelled from his amp, swarming around the stage.

The drummer began to tap his drum set in a subtle flood of gyrating polyrhythms, oblivious to the rest of the band’s plan. The singer crouched and sang to the floorboards in seeming desperation, then he shouted as if for help.

The disjointed tones of the music washed over the room – this was Temecula Valley-based band Aliens & Indians, experimental progressive rock at its fringe.

The band is comprised of guitarists Jordan Searls, 18, and Troy Russu, 20; vocalist Karl Perkins, 21; keyboardist Issac Rangal, 25; and drummer Josue Valdez, 22.

That night, the five men poured their souls – and sweat – out onstage. The audience, numbering fewer than 30, sat deadpan nonetheless.

"Some people don’t really get it," Perkins said after the band finished the set.

It was a few minutes after 10 when the musicians dragged their equipment out of the Desert Rose Café in Wildomar and loaded it into their truck. All the nearby shops were closed.

"Suburbs are cool and everything but you don’t get the same response as in big cities like LA," said Perkins, looking around at the dark, deserted quiet.

Music critics have called the style of music Aliens & Indians plays numerous names over the last three decades. Post-punk, space rock, psychedelic, noise – the musicians in the band don’t know what to call it, so they just call themselves experimental music.

They aim to use traditional instrumentation to create an ambience and a mood in the listener rather than write songs.

"I aspire not to be normal. Normal is common. Why should it be common?" said Rangal as he stood on the sidewalk talking to his band members.

"Some people don’t like noise," said Searls.

"We love that stuff, so we incorporate that. All Advertisement

[ Berry-Bell and Hall Mortuary ] noise is music," he continued. He pounded his foot on the sidewalk. "Me stomping on the ground, that’s music."

Regardless of the musicians’ love for the music, fans have difficulty digesting what the band does, said Searls.

"We get a lot of this ‘It’s really trippy,’" he said, "but musicians, they really appreciate the experiments we’re doing."

There is one advantage to being the only experimental band in the area, he added: "It’s kind of exciting playing in an area where people don’t know about experimental music… It’s like a whole new level [to the fans]."

Though the nightlife is tame and the fan base for their music is small, Perkins sees potential for growth in the area.

"[The rock scene] hasn’t been going strong for very long," he said.

The region needs a centralized rock scene, he said. The crowds of young people who filled Trevi Entertainment Center in Lake Elsinore for indie rock concerts over the course of the last few months proves his point, he said.

Earlier this month, the City of Lake Elsinore suspended the permits the entertainment center needs to offer live music.

This has made it difficult to form an independent music community, Perkins said.

"It seems as soon as a good venue turns up, it’s shut down," he said.

Though the show attracted only a few more than two dozen fans, those in attendance liked what they heard.

"[Rangal] brings a new dimension to it. I like the more psychedelic feel," said Brandon Lodge, 24, a Temecula resident who attended the performance. "I don’t hear that much these days… There should be more of it. It’s really fun music."

"They have a good live performance. A lot like Mars Volta, very wild," said fellow attendee Patrick Chavez, 23, of Wildomar.

Aliens & Indians is currently recording a new EP, which they expect to release this summer. It will be available at their concerts and on their MySpace page.

To hear Aliens & Indians, visit www.myspace.com/aliensandindians.

Aliens & Indians

With Peter Puffington and the Rocketship Explosion

When: March 27 at 8 p.m.

Where: Bob’s Pit Stop, 26900 Newport Rd., Menifee