Their website's description of the band begins with "a power pop/rock band that delivers like a 500 mega ton bomb." It seems like a tough bill to fill, but X51 lives up to that description. The site continues by saying that, "They only play upbeat, head-bobbing foot-tapping sex rock by the best of new and not so new bands." Well, who can argue there? That pretty much sizes up the situation. For this writer, though, the most amazing things about this group are the history of the individual musicians and the diversity of their musical turf.

The band is composed of Bobby Shallenberger (bass), Gregg Decarlo (guitars and vocals),  Jinger Crystal (vocals), Tim Foss (drums and vocals) and Tippy Johnson (guitar). Although this band is fairly new, many of those names should be quite familiar to local music fans. These people have been in such bands as Stabbing Westward, RIPT, Brianna Sky, ICU and Agent Zero. Not only that, but their lead singer Jinger Crystal has been working as a solo artist for quite some time.

Even looking at the songs this outfit plays shows how unique they are. As one might guess they cover a nice cross section of rock bands including The Beatles, Blink 182, Melissa Etheridge, Heart and The Eagles. But they also hit heavy metal by doing songs by Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Def Leppard and others. The thing is, that's just the beginning because they cover pop songs (Kelly Clarkson, Shakira, Nancy Sinatra, etc) and even country (Big and Rich, Gretchen Wilson and more). It's interesting to note that, as wide ranging as the artists mentioned here are, this is just the tip of the iceberg. This band is arguably the most diverse (in terms of material covered) of any local group.

So, if what you've read thus far has you interested, what can you do about it? Well, you could start by stopping by their webite (www.x51rocks.com). It includes pictures, a more complete list of songs they do and all kinds of other information. You can also find out where they are playing and check them out. They'll be appearing at Groove Walk on the 13th of this month playing at Downtown Lounge, formerly Gaspo's Auto Inn. That might be a great opportunity to see them live.