Halloween rock-a-thon in Marysville

For Halloween, they're planning to be scary and loud.

The members of Faith Falls Short are hoping their music, as well as that of eight other bands scheduled to play Saturday at the Allyn Scott Youth & Community Center, will be just the thing for a night of fright.

Saturday's Halloween rock-a-thon — an eight-hour concert scheduled from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m. — will be the first of its kind in Marysville, says Ruth Soto, who has been organizing and promoting youth rock shows in the area for seven years.

The lineup includes local bands, as well as two from Sacramento and two from Modesto.

"They all support each other," Soto, 41, says of the camaraderie she has helped foster among young musicians.

"We're all really good friends," says Brett Cook, 21, a guitarist for Faith Falls Short.

Cook is nonchalant when describing the music he plays.

"Melodic death metal," he calls it.

Soto, who owns Apples Personally Yours boutique in downtown Marysville, has built a veritable stable of performers who, like Cook, have had difficulty relating to adults committed to a workaday world.

"I'm writing a song about Medusa," Cook says. "And how Perseus took her head to save his mother from a forced marriage."

He smiles, mischievously.

"I love Greek mythology," he says.

In spite of Cook's vivid imagination, he says he's stumped about how to dress up for his Halloween show. Saturday's concert, which Soto hopes will draw 300 or so rock 'n' roll fans, will also feature a costume contest.

For the past few months, she and several of her young friends have volunteered their labor — and Soto's paint — to spruce up the bleak interior of the Allyn Scott building in east Marysville, which has become their most frequent performance spot.

They painted the walls, and are working to retouch old murals. Soto worked Tuesday on a new mural near the center's entrance, while rockers and their friends painted the stage.

"There was nothing really going on for the youth music scene," says Cook, "until Ruth started doing stuff here."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com