There has been a deafening buzz in the local music community about a young Salinas band called The Mystery Lights. I first heard about the band from the charismatic frontman of Serpico, L.T., who told me that the kids put on a heck of a show. Vito Triglia of Bolivar Vive! said the group was “a trip.” During an afternoon interview with Sam Martinez of the Chicano All Stars, the longtime local musician kept bringing up The Mystery Lights. “They just have something,” he whispered.

I finally got a chance to see the group play at the beginning of the summer, at the Machuco Bonilla Benefit Concert at Monterey Live alongside performances by other local artists including the Chicano All Stars, King’s Kids and Mortero de Piedra. After the King’s Kids finished up a set of compelling Christian punk rock, The Mystery Lights took the stage. Decked out in a leopard print long sleeve shirt and holding an aquamarine guitar, Mike Brandon stood in the middle of the stage, flanked by bassist Joe “Styles” Della Mora and guitarist Alfredo Ortega. Behind Brandon was blonde-haired drummer Steve Miller. The black-ink “X” marks that identify minors at an all-ages show adorned three of the bandmembers’ hands – at 21, Della Mora is the group’s oldest member.

When The Mystery Lights started playing, an occasional bandmate named L.A. jumped onstage and laid down a guitar solo that twisted and burned like a fuse on a stick of dynamite. The rest of The Mystery Lights joined in on the sound-test jam as Brandon tested his mic with some vocals drenched in reverb. When the group was satisfied with the sound, L.A. inexplicably left the stage and The Mystery Lights were ready to dive into their set. The sound-check instrumental was more exciting and rocking than most bands’ best songs.

After a couple numbers, including “Lovin’ Machine” by the ‘60s Australian group The Easybeats, the band upped the intensity with a cover of The Kinks’ “I Gotta Move.” Brandon sung the lines “Where I’m going no one knows/ All I know is I got to go,” and hopped off the stage. When he returned, the rest of the band kept nailing the song with heads down as the singer/guitarist did some Pete Townsend-like arm-wheeling guitar moves and a spin on the stage.

Following that exhilarating cover the band played an original, a terrific garage-rock stomp called “Circles, Circles, Circles.” The Mystery Lights concluded their short set with two of their best songs, “Commission Street,” a groovy and lean rocker with clean guitar lines meandering like spider webs, and “Two-Face Lane,” an avalanche of beefy riffs with which Brandon got the audience and himself fired up. Throughout the song, great guitar solos would splinter out of riffs until the band slowed things down for a few seconds, coalesced into a sturdy groove and then rocketed off again.

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A few weeks later, I tried to parse together some information about the young group by hanging out with Della Mora and Brandon over in Salinas. Sitting in the Monterey Brewing Company, where the metal tanks loom like giant pistons, they tried to remember how they discovered their brand of Nuggets-style garage rock. Decked out in oversized glasses with a scarf tangled around his neck, Brandon, who is still in high school, danced around the questions in a vague but entertaining way. Della Mora’s answers were more informative.

Della Mora says he discovered The Kinks by knocking over the classic rock band’s Something Else album at the Santa Cruz Flea Market. Fearing he nicked it, Della Mora purchased the record and took it home, and then listened to it constantly. From there, Della Mora and L.A. formed a rock band called The Numbers with Brandon on drums. “We never played any shows,” says Brandon. “We just wrote.”

Ten months ago, The Numbers went into Sam Martinez’s studio in Chualar to record five songs. When they came out, they changed their name to The Mystery Lights and went through a series of musicians. Brandon also moved over to playing guitar and singing.

While the bandmembers in The Mystery Lights continue to ebb and flow, the group is laying down tracks for a debut CD titled Teenage Catgirls and The Mystery Lightshow. “The process is amazing,” Brandon says of recording. “New ideas every time. Proliferating.”

After the duo announces that their long-term goals include the usual for a lot of rock acts, like taking over the world and then the universe, Brandon gets a little excited. “Sometimes I get weird in restaurants,” he says. Then, Della Mora looks over at Brandon and agrees. “Mike sometimes gets weird everywhere,” he says.

THE MYSTERY LIGHTS AND THE MUTILATORS play 9pm Saturday, Aug. 11, at Monterey Live, 414 Alvarado St., Monterey. $7. 646-1415. To hear The Mystery Lights, go to myspace.com/teenagecatgirlsthemysterylightshow