BY JEFF BURLINGAME -- Preview Editor

ARTIC--Thank heaven for DEK.

While most teen bands with punk rock leanings are content to ape what's on the radio -- currently, that'd be Blink 182 or Sum 41 -- Seattle's DEK choose to study the old school.

Before punk rock became as frightening as a fenced-in dog with laryngitis, there were Social Distortion, TSOL and Black Flag. Snotty, sweaty and angry at the world, they and other punk bands offered a musical, and oftentimes physical through moshing, outlet for rebellious youth.

There four Shorecrest High School lads in DEK (Don't Even Know) have ignored the current trends and regressed to those days of anger-and humor-filled punk. On the band's first CD, Boner, no one is absolved of the teens' lyrical wrath, from the deprised rich boy who "don't know how to fight" in "Ike D. Thompsonhower" to alleged pedophile Michael Jackson in "Naughty Neverland".

The band isn't afraid to selfefface, as it does blunty in "I Hate DEK".

Sure, there's more than enough of the standard three-chord fare played (tightly) in eighth- and sixteenth-notes but there's also plenty of the more sophisticated aspects of songwriting, like soft/loud dynamics, guitar fills and alternating singers, often within the same verse and without missing a step.

That the father of guitarist/vocalist Mark Vraney, Mike, is the former manager of seminal punkers the Dead Kennedys doesn't hurt things, either. The elder Vraney's connections have helped the band land opening slots for TSOL, The Presidents of The United States of America, DOA and The Accused.

Opening for the latter late last year was the first time the band played the Artic Grange Hall. Well-recieved then, DEK is back Saturday night as a headliner of the eight-band "Sucky Bandfest," Robb Bates' yearly Monster Music all-ages throwdown.

Now in the studio working on its second album, DEK is using the Artic Show as a tune-up for an early December tour of California with the Adolescents. Tonight, they're in Seattle opening for Pennywise.

DEK's live set is stunning to most. Seasoned punk audiences often cringe with disappointment when they see their openers are teens. Diminutive lead singer/guitarist Bret Chernoff looks all of 10 (he's really 15) and the rest of the band members also look like they could be still in junior high.

The discontent doesn't last long. As one Seattle reviewer said of the boys' opening set for Social Distortion at the Showbox: "When the boys took the stage, a woman next to me hollered out, 'They're kids!' almost in disgust. They threw it in her face, though, because for the next 30 minutes her head didn't stop bobbing along and the smile didn't leave her face."