Ten group rehearsals came down to two hours of all-out rock music Saturday night at the Ames Community Center, 515 Clark Ave.

The third concert for the Iowa School of Rock was composed of seven bands of mostly young students from all over Central Iowa.

“In our registration, we group them together by musical interest,” said Al Biela, owner of Ames Music Studios, 2010 Northwestern Ave.

“The students promote, sell, do radio, newspaper. They dream up all the visuals for their band. It helps them [with] the experience of being in one,” he said.

The concert began with the band Cold Fire, who helped get the audience energized with “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”

By the end of the first band and beginning of the second, Impact, there was a small crowd of youth at the foot of the stage cheering the performers on.

Other bands for the night included Cruise Control, The Missing Link and Powerhouse Five.

Exceptional highlights included renditions of “Revolution” by The Beatles, “Smoke on the Water,” by Deep Purple and “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne, which got the entire auditorium energized with the music and skill demonstrated by the performers.

Nearly the entire concert was famous cover songs from other such rock legends as Led Zeppelin (“Communication Breakdown,” “Immigrant Song”), Guns N’ Roses (“Sweet Child O’ Mine”), Cream (“Sunshine of Your Love”) and a couple of songs from the more current Green Day (“She’s a Rebel”).

However, there were a couple of original songs written by the younger talent that performed.

Joe Wallace, who played with the band Impact, wrote “Fun & Games” and Zoe Schlosser, who performed with the band Four Dudes & A Chick, wrote “Rain On My Parade.”

“I thought it really came out great,” Schlosser said.

She said she wrote the song not long before the School of Rock began this summer.

The last band to play, Powerhouse Five, had more adults than students in it, so the performers were more advanced in their skill level. They started out with Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” and after a couple other songs, brought every performer out for Jonny Lang’s “Anything’s Possible.”

The crowd at the foot of the stage grew with every song and the performers were usually toward the front enjoying the thrill of the excitement of the fans.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun,” said Jake McCulley, who played guitar in the band Experiment 01. “I was really nervous when the band before us was playing, but when I was on stage I pretty much forgot about the audience.”

All participants agreed their training really paid off.

“It was pretty cool to see how we came together in such a short amount of time,” said Kean Roberts, who played guitar for Four Dudes & A Chick.

Al said he believed the concert went very well.

“I like the saying ‘the audience is the mother to the music,’ and this audience was more than ready for the music,” he said.

Melita Biela, manager of Ames Music Studios, agreed.

“I think their performance definitely reflects their practices,” she said. “The sound was great and people definitely enjoyed the concert. The whole night is a definite up.”

Al said he is preparing for the next session this coming fall.

“I’d love to have more college-age people,” he said. “If we get more people, it could reshape the way we put this on.”