(Enlarge) The members of O.R.B., bassist Bo Oliver, 12, drummer Owen Gerus, 11, and guitarist Cooper Gerus, 13, from left, jam together at a recent practice session. The boys, who will be attending Elkridge Landing Middle School this fall, have been friends since they started school and began making music together about two years ago.

While they all love the 2003 Jack Black movie "School of Rock," in which down-and-out rocker Dewey Finn (Black) forms a band of elementary school kids, the actor is by no means their role model, insist members of the band O.R.B. -- and their mothers -- even though their name (as in the group R.E.M.) comes from the movie's "Operation Rock Band."

And while Finn struggles to get his group into a local Battle of the Bands, O.R.B. recently performed by invitation at Artscape, the nation's largest free arts festival, held annually in Baltimore.

True, they were at the University of Baltimore's Student Center Theater, while punky Joan Jett and the Blackhearts had the main stage, but you gotta start somewhere and "this is their most public performance yet," mom Kathy Oliver says with pride.

Elkridge pals Bo Oliver, 12, and brothers Cooper and Owen Gerus, 13 and 11, respectively, have been friends since they started school and began making music together about two years ago, "the summer of Cooper's fifth grade," they reckon.

"It started at Bo's birthday party when we got him the DVD of 'School of Rock,'" Owen recalls. "A couple of weeks later we said, 'Let's start a band!' "

Bass-playing Bo comes by his interest naturally; dad Buddy Oliver is a professional musician and inventor of the LightViper, a fiber-optic audio transport system used by groups from the Dave Matthews Band to the Cleveland Pops and at venues from Sea World to the Super Bowl. He's taught Bo and guitarist Cooper, who has also learned from "noodling around by myself." Drummer Owen got lessons from Patrick McSwain; the vocals are on his own.

Getting up to speed by practicing together one or two hours daily in the summer and twice weekly during the school year, the trio has performed at school talent shows, a local Oktoberfest and benefits for the Elkridge Food Pantry, Hurricane Katrina relief and cystic fibrosis.

Earlier this summer, during a Main Street block party, they were rockin' out on a neighbor's front porch when heard by a visiting friend who just happened to be associated with Artscape.

Says John Berndt, one of the organizers of the festivities' "exotic-hypnotic" series of avant-garde, ethnic and popular music, at which O.R.B. shared the stage with a jaw-harp soloist, a group performing on invented instruments and a cellist playing classical Indian music, "We're interested in all of the variables, including age."

And Cooper thought it was amp problems that made them sound "exotic-hypnotic" when in fact classic rock is more their niche, influenced by AC/DC ("for their tightness"), Led Zeppelin ("good music"), Green Day ("stick-it-to-the-man-ness") and The Who ("drummer Keith Moon is awesome" and "they have the best bass player (John Entwistle)"). Later they added Jimi Hendrix to the roster.

The guys all speak together, each jumping in and out of the conversation as if doing one of their numbers, or really more like a jazz selection, which they also play, points out mother Lori Gerus.

An O.R.B. performance is usually half covers -- from Led Zeppelin, Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, The Grateful Dead, Talking Heads -- and half their own songs, which they usually write together, sometimes inspired by something from Owen's dreams.

"Our newest song is untitled yet; we just call it 'WW.' It's about world war," Bo says. "It's our first ballad."

"Their own songs are right for their voice range," Lori Gerus notes. After all, they're still middle-school students. The three, Howard County-born and raised, will all be attending Elkridge Landing Middle School this fall.

In the Oliver's basement studio (they have equipment in both houses, but the sound system is here) they gave a private demo of Rage Against the Machine's "Sleep Now in the Fire" and their own "No One," about the Elkridge Food Pantry, where they volunteer. At least to this golden oldie, the musical sophistication seemed no less.

No wonder, then, that O.R.B. has booked a wedding this fall, and has picked up several more gigs, thanks to Artscape.

When not practicing, the guys may be found mountain biking, swimming, playing assorted sports and, Bo adds, eating and even cooking together, as in a recent omelet cook-off.

The band that sautés together, stays together?

"We want to go on, but we probably won't," muses Cooper, sounding jaded well beyond his 13 years.

"I really want to," Owen responds.

Cooper again: "I don't care if we get big; I just want to keep playing."

After all those two-hour practices, they're still having fun, Lori Gerus says.

As Owen's bass drum proclaims, "Not all Rock is Good/But it's Good to Rock."

The band's online blog is at http://ORBrocks.com.

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