The structure housing the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum is probably the weirdest-looking building in Seattle. The EMP/SFM evokes Star Trek, Captain Kirk, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, and also, after the last Friday before break, lurking administrators, and wristbands that remind me of the bracelets that let you on to the water slide at the pool.

Until this past Saturday, I never would have guessed that Paul Allen’s giant architectural U.F.O. is also a hotbed for Seattle’s music scene. For three Saturday nights in February and one night in March, the SFM puts the sci-fi paraphernalia aside and makes room for an evening of live music.

This doesn’t mean that the Han Solo statue gets dressed up in flannel and grows its hair out, but rather that bands and their fans come togther at a venue which, among its many other unique features, doesn’t have a bar. Last Saturday, the fans were of all different ages, but those taking the stage that night were all required to be under the age of 21.

These Saturday-night concerts are a part of a battle of the bands called Sound Off, where underage bands face off for a grand prize of a performance slot at Bumbershoot, recording time, and a whole collection of instruments, microphones and the like. To my disappointment, I discovered that the losing bands don’t get humiliated in any way. In fact, they walk away with the prestige of having competed at Sound Off, and the publicity of having played EMP.

The first three concerts are semifinals, with each night’s lineup consisting of four bands. By the end of the night, one of them moves on to the finals in March. To get to the semifinals, your act has to get picked from a stack of about 100 other bands’ applications. All of the bands playing the second semifinal last Saturday had each sent in a short CD with a couple of songs on it, which had been scrutinized first by a board of average music fans just like them, then by a panel of judges and people in high places at EMP. It was eventually narrowed down to 12 semifinalists.

At 8:00, a couple of loud crashes started off the first set of the evening, that of Free City Collective, a five-piece rock band from Vancouver. They were already tight by me, as they’d given me a free CD. It may have been because of my badge saying “Press Photographer,” but I’m never one to refuse free stuff.

To my surprise, around me were all kinds of music industry professionals, judging the competition. The bands are judged on everything from muscianship to stage presence. To Ben Rowley, lead singer of the Free City Collective, the hype and excitement around the battle of the bands are a good omen for everyone involved.

“People are finally starting to take notice that you don’t have to be over 21 to make good music,” says Rowley.

Despite my continuous use of the word “band,” your act also doesn’t have to be a rock group in order to take part in Sound Off. During the break after Free City Collective played, I talked to a semifinalist who’s set to perform at next week’s concert, on Saturday, February 28th.

As the only MC and DJ act in all of this year’s Sound Off, rapper SOL holds his own among indie competitors. There are two other hip-hop groups in the competition: Dyno Jamz, which performed the week before Free City Collective, and Razpy and the Vigilantes, who are playing with SOL at the semifinal on the 28th, but these bands feature backing rhythm sections and horns.

When I heard of these genre-melding musicians, I had trouble envisioning anything good coming about. But according to keyboard player Sasha (I’m sure Sasha has a last name, but on their MySpace it’s listed as ‘KOOL’) of the band Dearboy, the use of bizarre instruments is a growing trend, and Dyno Jamz won their semifinal round.

“There are more eclectic instruments now, quite a few trumpets. The theramin is getting popular,” said Sasha. Don’t feel dumb if you don’t have a clue what a theramin is, I was that way once too… As in until Sasha explained it to me.

A theramin is a box-like electronic instrument with no keys or strings, and very few buttons. You move your hands closer to or farther away from the box to control pitch and volume. Because of the metal components of the instrument, superheroes such as Magneto would be true “theramin maestros,” but we humans are capable. According to Sasha, Dearboy is currently trying to work one into their act. I wonder if Magneto’s in their band?

Feeling much more informed than I had been at the beginning of the night, I watched the next band, a two-piece from Tacoma (as in two gruff young men, not a bikini) called Makeup Monsters get up on stage. Their band featured no odd instruments, but instead the two members, both well under the 21-year age cap, would switch places every few songs, giving them both a chance to play guitar and drums.

The crowd loved them — they seemed to be the high school hotties of the night —and at the end of the evening, so did the judges, as Makeup Monsters was named the second semifinal winner, putting them into the lineup for March’s finals.

The two bands after Makeup Monsters, Briar Rose and The Mission Orange, were well-received in their raucous performances. The Mission Orange, who placed second, may reappear, since the fourth spot in the lineup for the final will be filled by the winner of an online poll. Fans will go online in the week leading up to the Sound Off finals, and vote for their favorite band out of those that got second in their semifinals.

But despite all the theramins and guitar solos, SOL likes Sound Off how it is.

“It bridges the gap between kids and the people that are running the Seattle music scene. It’s a positive thing,” says SOL.

SOL says he’s always been more into hip-hop. Though he wants everyone out to support him on Saturday, he says in response to the rock and roll dominated scene, “Seattle is what it is.”