Guitarist Jeremy Popoff said the members in his band Lit all were products of '80s heavy metal.
"There was Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne and early Metallica," Popoff said during a telephone interview from the band's stop in Jacksonville, Fla. "That kind of music brought us together."
Lit — Popoff and his brother, vocalist A. Jay Popoff, bassist Kevin Baldes and drummer Allen Shellenberger — will perform at the Ice Village, 525 W. 100 South, tonight at 9. Tickets are $28 at the door. Yellow Card will open the show.
"We were also influenced by '70s arena rock bands and '80s punk and new wave, like the Cars and Elvis Costello," Popoff said. "Then we also dug the '90s stuff like Nirvana and Weezer."
Mix all those influences together and you get the Lit sound, Popoff said.
"We pretty much just wanted to be in a band because none of us were any good at sports," he said with a laugh. "It was a good way to meet girls. Then, as we started playing, we realized that this was, for the lack of a better word, our calling."
The band recently released a new album, "Atomic."
OUT AND ABOUT: Speaking of all things atomic, the famed Los Angeles street performer/painter Atom is in town. He was last seen using his paints and fire on the southwest corner of South Temple and West Temple. Atom, whose real name is Adam Geld, whips up his paintings in less than four minutes, dries them with a blow-torching aerosol can and calls himself the "world's fastest painter." He should really think of changing his name to "Flash."
• Friday night at the Roots clothing store in the Gateway, the wait for entry was, on average, three to four hours. And during the week, it did not appear the lines had gone down much. Roots supplied the U.S. Olympic Team with those trendy berets and has been trying to keep up with public demand ever since.
DON'T MISS: Deep Blue Something from Dallas will be in Orem tonight for Worldsong 2002, along with Shawn Colvin, Joan Osborne and Matthew Andrae. The concert will be in the David O. McKay Center at Utah Valley State College. Tickets are $25-$38 at the door. "Our agent called us, and we thought it was a great idea," said Toby Pipes, founder of Deep Blue Something. "It's got a great lineup, and we're pretty excited to play during the Olympics." Worldsong 2002 is an international concert for world peace endorsed by the 2002 Winter Games.
• Repertory Dance Theatre: Martha Graham's "Diversion of Angels," Doris Humphrey's "With My Red Fires" and Helen Tamaris' "Dance for Walt Whitman," tonight, 8 p.m., Capitol Theatre. Tickets available for $20-$35 at the door.
• "Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936" exhibition, University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library, through March 15. Hours are Monday and Thursday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 1-5 p.m.
E-mail: scott@desnews.com
