Code Red, Fire Priestess and VudooDollz take over WOW Hall on Nov. 20

A local rock triple bill fills the 1932 Woodmen hall on the Friday before Thanksgiving week.

Some Friday nights in Eugene call for a listening room. This isn't one of them. On Friday, Nov. 20, WOW Hall hosts a three-band rock bill built for a loud room: Code Red, Fire Priestess and VudooDollz, announced Oct. 22.

The show starts at 8 p.m., and WOW Hall's event page lists doors at 7 and a finish around 11. Tickets are $21 through TicketWeb. The hall's standing warning applies here too: buy only from the WOW Hall office, its website, TicketWeb or the University of Oregon, and nobody else.

Code Red tops the bill. WOW Hall's listing describes them as a rock band built around a party, fronted by Emmy Wright. That sets the tone for the whole night: nobody on this bill is promoting a concept album. This is three local acts and a dance floor.

Fire Priestess is the clearest pitch of the three. The Springfield band plays the heavy metal of the '70s and '80s, and the venue names Maiden, Priest, Metallica, Dio and Scorpions as the source material. The lineup is Mimi Jacquez on lead vocals, Issa Koberstein and Steve Kachinsky Blakmoor on guitars, Kris McBride on bass and Brian Middleton on drums. VudooDollz opens.

The room is part of the draw. The building at 291 W. 8th Ave. went up in 1932 as the Eugene home of the Woodmen of the World, a fraternal group that, as WOW Hall's history tells it, supported local timber workers and their families. In 1975, when the building faced demolition, volunteers formed the Community Center for the Performing Arts and staged a "WOWathon," a weekend of nonstop performances that raised the down payment. The mortgage was paid off in 1978, and the hall joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. The nonprofit still describes its job as running the building as a community center for all ages and incomes.

That history is why a show like this belongs here. The hall holds about 400. That's big enough for three bands and a crowd that came to move. Hometown rock nights are exactly what the volunteers of 1975 saved it for.

This is three local acts and a dance floor.

It's the last Friday before Thanksgiving week. Bring earplugs if you're the type, and a jacket for the walk down 8th Avenue. Get tickets through TicketWeb or the WOW Hall office.

Sources: WOW Hall — Code Red, Fire Priestess, and VudooDollz (wowhall.org); TicketWeb — Fire Priestess, Code Red, VudooDollz at WOW Hall (ticketweb.com); WOW Hall — History of the CCPA (wowhall.org); WOW Hall — About the WOW Hall (wowhall.org)