While sipping on a beer in a local tavern, Kevin Lucas became mesmerized by a familiar tune jamming over the airwaves. He soon realized this particular rock song could be a perfect cover for his percussion-driven band Dead Musicians’ Society to reconstruct and perform.

When [Nirvana’s Something in the Way] came on, it put me in a trance, and I knew DMS could do that, Lucas said. I knew we could combine a unique sound and set a solid rhythm to it.

Dead Musicians’ Society will perform 8 p.m. Saturday in Quigley Auditorium.

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This performance is the prelude to a series of concerts by the group. The band recently accepted an invitation to perform as featured artists in SIU-Edwardsville Percussive Arts Society State of Illinois percussion convention. Lucas highly anticipates the performance and said he feels the group’s music and unique style will carry them through the convention rather well.

Almost everyone else playing at the convention is pretty much famous, Lucas said. Of course, we’re not famous yet. We’re still the underdogs, but it’s a nice position to be in.

We just want to play for the largest possible audience.

Lucas composes for the group and has been recognized for his talents around the world. One award came about when Lucas placed second nationally as an MTNA Solo Percussionist, which he compares to winning the silver medal in the Olympics.

After numerous successes, Lucas formed a band that elaborates on his talents as well as the talents of others.

We all got together [at SIUC] last March. I kind of did a pick- and-chose with who would be in the group, Lucas said. I feel like I created something special. It’s like my baby.

The band, which features Lucas on stunt marimba, has exceeded his expectations. With the release of its compact disc, Lost In A Distant Landscape, the group gained immediate recognition on the local music scene.

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All three of Lucas’ compositions on the disc are instrumental. However, Lucas uses an interesting twist in adding poetry to each piece.

I was thinking too hard one night, and I came up with the idea to combine poetry with my music, Lucas said. It seemed like the perfect idea for this group.

The poetry appears on the compact disc’s cover and also upon the compact disc itself. Lucas said the inspiration for his poetry stems from memorable and difficult times he has experienced in his life, and he pieces the poetry with the music.

Four years ago I dated a schizophrenic and she inspired me to write, he said. I wrote about what she was going through in Journey’. If I hadn’t met her, I don’t think I would have written poetry at all.

Lucas said the poems derive from true events told to him by his former girlfriend, such as her fiance having been killed by a locomotive.

I was in the city where these events were supposed to have taken place. I decided to look up old newspapers in the library and read about the wreck, Lucas said. I found that a boy was killed, but the girl died as well and I knew my girlfriend had taken on the identity of a deceased woman.

Regardless of his inspiration, he said the group’s growing intimacy and maturity are the elements which will provoke the Dead Musicians’ Society’s second compact disc to soar.

We’ve added a string section with violins and cellos to our performance. We have matured as a group and we’ve grown closer, Lucas said. I’ve also become stronger as a composer. I guess it is a combination of things that make the second CD excel from the first.

Factoid:Dead Musicians’ Society will perform 8 p.m. Saturday in Quigley Auditorium. Admission for the performance is free. For information call 536-8742.