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That's what they called it when three of the hottest ska bands around hit the road together last fall. And "mania" was a good description, because there was no telling what might happen at any of their shows …

W hen the Ska Mania tour came to our town, we decided to check it out for ourselves. And we saw it all.

At 7:23 p.m., we were in the middle of a dance marathon, with some 3,000 ska-crazy maniacs jumpin' and moshin' all over the floor.

At 8:17, we were in the middle of some sort of intergalactic rock opera, complete with Captain James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. "Bones" McCoy and an annoying Klingon, all acting rather goofy on stage.

At 9:42, we felt like we were in church.

Yep, you could find just about anything and everything during this Ska Mania tour.

Christian ska's Big Three—The Orange County Supertones, Five Iron Frenzy and The Insyderz—took their fast-paced, high-powered, good-times show to 18 cities in 28 days, rockin' the house in big places like L.A. and Atlanta, as well as not-so-big places like Elkhart, Indiana and Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Everywhere these guys went, it was party time. And ska was the guest of honor.

"Ska is just a really fun style of music," says Jason Carson, drummer for The Supertones. "It's happy music. The audience can dance to it and have a great time at the shows."

Exactly what is ska, anyway?

"We usually define it as sped-up reggae with horns," says Joe Yerke, lead singer for The Insyderz.

And, depending on which band is on stage, and what song they're playing, you'll also hear traces of punk, hardcore, swing, heavy metal, and rap.

"A pretty wide range of sounds," says Reese Roper, lead singer for Five Iron.

And a pretty wide range of scenes—at least during the Ska Mania gigs.

At the concert we saw, held in a college gymnasium, the stage was set up on one side, and the rest of the place was one huge dance floor. And dance they did. For most of the 3-1/2 hour concert, you'd find thousands of bouncing bodies, jumpin' for all they were worth.

There was plenty of action on stage, too—some of it quite, uhh, unpredictable. Like when Five Iron came out to the original Star Trek theme, complete with the voiceover: "Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise … "

Five Iron, dressed in Trek costumes, had a running gag between Captain Kirk (Reese) and Dr. McCoy (bass player Keith Hoerig). Several times throughout the show, "Kirk" would ask, "How's everything in sick bay, Bones?"

And "Bones" would answer, "Well, Jim, everything's OK, except for one problem. A KLINGON!"

Then the Klingon (guitarist Micah Ortega) would jump out and "attack" somebody in the band.

Fortunately, there were no casualties—well, at least Bones never said, "He's dead, Jim"—and the bands played on.

By the time The Supertones took the stage, the energy level was, well, ska high. The guys from Orange County ran through all their fan favorites — like "Adonai," "Resolution," "Strike Back," "Who Can Be Against Me?" and others — whipping the crowd into a frenzy. (Or was that Five Iron's job?)

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