adrenachrome.

For some downsized people, Halloween might be about candy and such. For the Adrenachrome guys, it's about rock 'n' roll.

Then again, almost everything in their lives is about rock.

"We have really made it," said drummer Jon Kibby. "Not in riches, but in getting to play the music."

He was talking in the group's farmhouse northwest of Lansing, in a setting that resonates rock lifestyle.

This is home for five of the seven Adrenachrome musicians, plus two girlfriends and occasional pals. The basement - appropriately dungeon-like - is the rehearsal studio.

"We only have one close neighbor and she's cool," Kibby said. "With all the trains and planes around here, no one's going to complain about a band."

Now those rehearsals are pointed toward a massive concert Adrenachrome is headlining Friday at the Temple Club.

"Everyone has a wild time on Halloween," said Rocky Rodriguez, the group's singer. "People seem to get more riled up."

And the Temple Club may be the ideal place for the riled masses. Last year, Adrenachrome's show drew more than 500 people, many in costume. "Everyone is out to have a good time," said bass player Rusty Kalso.

Adrenachrome puts on a big concert each Halloween. The rest of the year, it ranges from big halls to jam sessions.

"We've been jammin' since '95," Kibby said. "Back then, we'd have our parents drive us and have sleepovers."

Kibby and two guitarists - Dan Gokee and Brad Downs - started jamming first. All three are 22 and from Ovid.

Added soon were Kalso (23, St. Johns) and Rodriguez (25, Ovid). Later, the band added Eric Hansen (25, Ovid) on keyboards and Dave Canfield (23, St. Johns) on turntable and samples.

Adrenachrome has grown from an Ovid High talent show to a group with a solid following. "What I found interesting is its stage presence," said Mike Rangel, 25, a fellow musician. "These guys play like they're really having fun."

That kind of fun requires hard work. After getting home from their day jobs - janitor, computer tech, car rental, warehouse, etc. - members have three to four nights of scheduled rehearsals each week.

They also took a road tour of sorts. Loading up a Dodge Ram and a trailer, they made a round trip to do one show in Las Vegas and one in Los Angeles, burning through $1,200 in gas.

Then they were back to their Michigan base, which varies.

Adrenachrome has been based in big old houses in Ovid, Lansing and then Bath. "That was a great one," Hansen said. "It was a dream-come-true. Except for the wiring."

One night last January, he was awakened by screaming. The house was filled with smoke.

People ran out the door. Two couldn't reach it and used a window.

"I went back in and got my keyboard," Hansen said. "It was right by the door."

Kibby considered going back for his drums - which had been used for only two gigs - but it was too late. Almost everything Adrenachrome had was gone.

"Thank God that the Red Cross was there so quickly," Kalso said. "They did a tremendous job. ... That's why some of the (Halloween) concert money goes to them."

The Red Cross helped get clothes. The insurance settlement got equipment.

"We went on the greatest shopping binge ever," Kalso said.

That's why this rough-and-ready band has great equipment. There's a shiny, red drum set, new guitars and more.

The band quickly found its new spot. It's an old farmhouse, with two living rooms, lots of sleeping space and that old basement, lined by plastered field stones.

"It's your basic Michigan basement," Kibby said.

In the living rooms, people hang out and watch TV, preferably "That '70s Show" and "The Simpsons." And in the basement, they rehearse. "We're really, really serious about what we do," Kibby said.

- Lansing Stat Journal

Published April 30, 2009
Anne Erickson | aerickson@lsj.com

To Rocky Rodriguez, frontman of Lansing-based hardcore band Adrenachrome, making music is more than a hobby. It's a calling.

"Really, it means truly being happy," Rodriguez said. "I can honestly say that with all the struggles that many people in Michigan and elsewhere go through, that being able to kick it with my friends and jam out absolutely feels great.

"I love playing music with these guys and it is just as amazing to me as the first time we jammed back in December of 1995."
Adrenachrome has built a reputation for making tight, in-your-face hard rock. This is the kind of rock that hits you in right the gut and makes you feel tough just listening to it. Heavy riffing and scream-y vocals define the sound, along with a vicious live showing.

Last December, the guys played their first show in more than a year, and Rodriguez says it felt like home.

Nowadays, the guys are working on some news songs, two of which ("Devastator and The Drake Equation") they'll play Saturday when they open for alt-rocker Taproot at Small Planet. Rodriguez also talks of a new album hopefully by year's end: "You can never really rush these things, so we are playing it by ear."
- Lansing Noise Magazine