Scapegoat members go pop at Suite tonight

In the metallic/melodic hardcore band Scapegoat, Kit Walters and Spencer Bensch started making heavy music at an early age. Now well into their twenties the pair have taken an entirely new direction with the electro-pop act KIT. KIT plays Suite at The Epicentre tonight, February 6. Doors open at 10 p.m.

You can check out a track here.

Walters was 12 the first time he performed live with Scapegoat. Bensch joined five years later in 2004. At its peak it could draw several hundred fans locally, which is quite a feat for an independent Charlotte band. The group eventually toured Japan and released six albums, but following 2011's excellent "I Am Alien" Walters (who has also worked for other acts as a producer) and Bensch began focusing on pop music with an outfit called the New Renaissance.

If you dug the New Renaissance, who also played live occasionally, KIT is musically heading in the same direction. The pair's potential in their former band suggests that it just might go somewhere. I witnessed a very green Scapegoat early on. They were young and rough around the edges, but with each album showed progress and increasing musical maturity. By the time the band released "Zombie Dog" I found myself blown away by the arrangements and Walters' stellar production skills. You couldn't tell it was a homegrown effort.

The current group has spent a year planning and figuring out just how it wants to present itself in an increasingly crowded industry (hence the name change). So keep an eye - and ear - out. Seeing its first official live show could someday be something to talk about.