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Boo Clark dares you not to take her band, Red Phoenix Rising, seriously.

Sure, it's a group made up of three girls (Clark, singer Jen Murphy and drummer Lisa Crawley) and a dude (bassist Mattlock Russell). And yes, Clark is still in high school, in her senior year at Roane County High. But when it comes to rock 'n' roll, Red Phoenix Rising has rocketed to the top of the local music scene, landing a gig at Blue Cats in Knoxville's Old City after being together less than a year.

That's partially due to connections — they've been adopted as the unofficial mascot band by the Hard Knox Roller Girls, it would seem; Red Phoenix Rising is playing Sunday's HKRG after-party and the organization's April 6 fund-raiser at Blue Cats. But it's on the strength of the band's music that Red Phoenix Rising has cultivated a solid local following.

"I always tell people that our genre, if we had to classify ourselves, is alternative rock with a touch of grunge and metal," Clark said. "Just by looking at us, we're already unique. Three girls and a guy in a band is very different. Our lead singer is a girl, but she doesn't sound like a Gwen Stefani or anybody like that. We've been compared to Joan Jett, of course, and lyrically to Alanis Morissette, and we get comparisons to The Cranberries, as far as our style goes."

When it comes to guitar work, Clark looks up female shredders like Jett and Brodie Armstrong of The Distillers, as well as the heavy style popularized by such groups as System of a Down. She started playing guitar when she was 5, but it was only a couple of years ago that she began to take it seriously, she said.

About a year ago, Murphy, Russell and Crawley were in a band called Random Facts; Clark was the band's photographer. The group's guitarist at the time was "having problems," Clark said, and the other three members decided to form another group and invited Clark along to play six-string.

"That has a lot to do with our name," Clark said. "The phoenix is a mythological bird that dies after 500 years, and when it dies, it bursts into flames. Out of those ashes, a new phoenix is born. That sort of went along with the old band bursting into flames and the new band rising from the ashes."

That was roughly seven months ago. They connected with local rock band Liftkind, whose members came to a Red Phoenix Rising practice. They were immediately enthusiastic about the group's music and invited Red Phoenix Rising to open for them at their CD release show at Prince's Deli in West Knoxville.

That was on Dec. 30. It was Red Phoenix Rising's first show, and the first time Clark had played in front of a large crowd.

"Everybody loved us, and we've gotten encores ever since," she said. "I was so into it, it's become an addiction to me. I love music, and now I love playing live."

Even if she isn't old enough to drink in the bars in which she plays. (The again, Russell is the only 21-year-old in the band, although Murphy is about to turn 21.) From that first gig, each Red Phoenix Rising appearance has parlayed into another; the Prince gig led to an invite from another local band to play the Long Branch Saloon on the Cumberland Avenue "Strip," and now the band is getting offers for three or four additional shows every time it plays, Clark said.

"We've gotten a lot of support," she said. "Usually, people hear about us before they come see us, and I guess they hear good things about us. They always seem to come in with an open mind and hear us for themselves; they never don't take us seriously because we're three girls. Our live music is good, and the crowd sees and hears that."

When a member of the Hard Knox Roller Girls first heard Red Phoenix Rising perform, she though the three-quarters female ratio of band members would be ideal for the local all-girl roller derby league's April 6 fund-raiser. The fact that the event is at Blue Cats, a venue coveted by many local acts, is all the sweeter, Clark said.

"That was our goal — to be playing at Blue Cats — when we first started, but we never thought it would happen this soon," Clark said. "We definitely want to have an album out, and we want to be playing at Blue Cats regularly. We do have goals, and we do have something to prove.

"You can't just draw a line on who can rock out. Girls can, too, and we want to show everyone that."