By Michael Swanger michael@dmcityview.com

Five Finger Death Punch plays an all-ages show at the House of Bricks on Monday at 5 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance through IowaTix.com.

Five things about Five Finger Death Punch

Having already toured with the likes of Korn, Hellyeah, Trivium and Atreyu, and sold more than 100,000 albums, metal rockers Five Finger Death Punch are headlining a few shows of their own between opening stints this spring and summer with the likes of Disturbed and The Metal Mayhem Festival (Slipknot, Machine Head, Mastodon). On Monday, the band plays an all-ages show at 5 p.m. at the House of Bricks. Advance tickets, $15, are available through IowaTix.com. Here are five things you should know about the FFDP, which Metal Edge magazine describes as, “the sound of violent exhilaration, giving contemporary metal a belligerent shove in an exciting direction.”

1) The band is comprised of former members of other groups: Zoltan Bathory (U.P.O.), Jeremy Spencer, Ivan Moody (Motograter), Darrell Roberts (W.A.S.P.) and Matt Snell (Anubis Rising & Deadsett).

2) Their debut album, “The Way of the Fist,” which includes their first hit single, “The Bleeding,” remains in the Billboard Top 200. It is also No. 10 on the Top New Artists Charts on Soundscan with 116,400 sales.

3) “The Bleeding” stayed in the Top Active Rock Charts for six weeks. The video for the song topped out at No. 5 on MTV2’s “Headbanger’s Ball Top 20 Videos for 2007.”

4) The band’s new single, “Never Enough,” is currently No. 22 on the Active Rock Charts.

5) The band’s die-hard fan base is affectionately known as “The Knuckleheads.”

Kooling in Valley Junction

Veteran R&B band Kool & the Gang, which has sold more than 70 million albums and moved more than three generations of fans on the dance floor with hit songs like “Celebration,” “Ladies Night,” “Cherish,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Summer Madness,” “Too Hot,” “Joanna,” “Get Down On It” and “Open Sesame,” performs Saturday at 5 p.m. on Fifth Street in Valley Junction as part of West Des Moines’ month-long “A-MAY-zing Days” celebration.

Founded in 1964 in New Jersey by brothers Ronald and Robert “Kool” Bell, Kool & the Gang started as a group of neighborhood friends and musicians playing jazz, soul and funk under a number of monikers like the Jazziacs, The New Dimensions, The Soul Town Band and Kool & The Flames. The band became an international success by the late 1970s and continued to chart several hits during the 1980s. During the 1990s, the group was frequently sampled by rap artists, and in 2004, it collaborated with young artists like Lil’ Kim, Sean Paul and Ashanti to release “The Hits Reloaded.” The band’s founding members continue to tour sans former lead singer James “JT” Taylor, who left the group in 1988.

Gates open at 4 p.m. Opening acts include Karen Durrant’s Dreamgirls and Flipside. Advance tickets, $20, are available through Ticketmaster. Tickets at the gate are $25.

Scene notes

Singer-songwriter Laura Meyer is on tour to support her new CD for Dirt Floor Records, “Boys and Eros,” and plays the Ritual Café on Thursday at 7 p.m. Admission TBA. … The Avey Brothers won the 2008 Iowa Blues Challenge last Saturday at the Hotel Fort Des Moines, beating out The Smokin’ Mojo Kings and The Soul Searchers, respectively. They will represent Iowa at the 2009 International Blues Challenge to be held in Memphis in February. … Douglas Acres beat five other local acts at a battle of bands held May 9 at People’s Court to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. … Speaking of battles of the bands, Clearwater Beach is hosting one on Sunday as 16 Iowa bands compete for $1,000 in prizes. Admission is free. The battle coincides with Poison’s Bret Michael’s “Memorial Day Bash” to be held that day at the beach. Opening acts include local rock bands Gimikk, Lyin’ Heart, Cold Filtered, Rude Mood and Skin Kandy. Tickets are $25. Visit www.boonebikebash.com. … Making Movies, a bilingual band that mixes indie-rock with salsa and traditional Latin music, plays House of Bricks on Sunday at 5 p.m. They release the first of three English/Spanish EPs on June 24. The Albino Spiders open the all-ages show. Admission is $8. … “American Idol” finalist and former United States Marine soldier Josh Gracin, who after delivering a Gold-selling debut album and three consecutive Top 5 singles on country radio, has just released his sophomore album, “We Weren’t Crazy,” plays Sunday at 7 p.m. at Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona. “This album is more me,” Gracin said in a press release. “I was able to focus on making the album I wanted to make. For the first album, I was still in the service, so I had to fly in and out of Nashville to record when I could. This time around it had my undivided attention.” Doors open at 5:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $20 and are available through the racetrack and Ticketmaster. Local country singer Jason Brown opens the show. … The “Honda Civic Tour,” featuring Panic at the Disco, Motion City Soundtrack, Phantom Planet and The Hush Sound, play the Val Air Ballroom on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $32.50 and available through the box office at Ticketmaster. … … The Almost, featuring the drummer from Underoath, plays June 5 at People’s Court with Emery, Envy on the Coast and Army of Me. Tickets to the all-ages show are $15 through IowaTix.com. … Edwin McCain plays People’s Court on June 21 — three days before the release of his new CD, “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.” … Pollstar reports that the “Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour,” featuring Boys Like Girls, Good Charlotte, Metro Station and The Maine, plays the Val Air Ballroom on July 10. … In other Val Air Ballroom concert news: Shinedown performs June 8 ($17.50); Flogging Molly plays Aug. 7 ($22.50); Badfish — A Tribute to Sublime plays Oct. 2 ($17.50); and the David Crowder Band performs Nov. 5 ($25). … The Faint will play People’s Court on July 27. Tickets, $15, are available through IowaTix.com. … Tickets for the Sept. 18 concert at Hoyt Sherman Place featuring eclectic performers Leo Kottke and Leon Redbone are on sale now through Hoyt and Ticketmaster. They cost $27-$36. … Ricky Skaggs and The Whites play Stephens Auditorium in Ames on Dec. 18. CV

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