With the Ides of March, rock 'n' roll has the impact it once had when the Beatles and the Rolling Stones first appeared to give us those fantastic hits, one on top of the other.
    On stage, the Ides raise the roof and lift you off your seat.  Jim Peterik, their lead vocalist, jumps across the stage like an Indian at a powwow, leaping two feet in the air, arms flung out, fringe on his pants flapping in all directions, his hair flying up and falling down.
    Peterik runs in place like a Marx brother one minute and the next minute, he's doing "One, Two, Three O'Clock, Four O'Clock Rock," legs spreading, feet scooting and knees shaking like a robot running amuck.
    Continually, he jumps, hops and rants.  He talks between songs, quickly getting to the point of introduction, "This song comes from an age when puberty was  a state of mind."  Zonk! The Ides' playing like their blood streams, is filled with adrenalin.
    "THE VEHICLE" is the name of their first Warner Bros album, due for release any day now.  It's also the name of their nation-wide hit single.  Peterik wrote all but two of the songs on the new record, including "The Vehicle."
    The group also performs an extended version of "Eleanor Rigby" and "Wooden Ships." Their version of "Wooden Ships" is the best I've ever heard.  They have the tight, close harmony of Crosby, Stills and Nash, along with the hardness and guts of the Jefferson Airplane.  The remaining songs, including "Bald Medusa," and "Lead Me Home Gently," are surprisingly good, literate and contemporary.
    Peterik writes songs that offer more insight than one would expect him to have at his age.  Unlikely enough, he is a 20-year-old super showman who lives in Berwyn and goes to school in Cicero at Morton Junior College.
    I met Jim one evening at Columbia recording studios, where he and drummer Mike Borch were listening to the tapes that would make up the "Vehicle" album.  I learned, first of all, that both are everyday plain and simple people, with everyday hassles, but they're probably brighter, more curious, less pretentious and funnier than most of us.
    "Vehicle" has brought them overnight changes, including enough calls to fill their summer calendar with a stream of performance.  They've already been leaping and hurrying, in Massachusetts one night, Michigan the next, Chicago the third and back to the East Coast the fourth for a pop festival, followed by an appearance on a TV show.  But, as usual, success didn't come overnight.
    The seven members of the Ides of March have been working together nearly five years.  They grew up together, attended the same grammar schools, then high schools and now are enrolled in Chicago area colleges.
    IN addition to Peterik and Borch, the Ides of March include:  Bob Bergland, an accounting major at Northern Illinois University, who plays tenor sax and bass guitar; Larry Millas, one of the group's founders and a student at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, the organist and rhythm guitarist; John Larson 21, and Chuck (Omar) Sourmar, 17 the two horn men; and Ray Herr, who shares lead vocals with Peterik and also plays guitar and bass.  All come from Berwyn, except Herr (Arlington Heights) and Larson (Cicero).
    The group began in a musical bag like the Hollies, which demands a fast pace, often a calypso and a very tight, spirited harmony.  They worked their way up through their share of bar mitzvahs and high school sock hops, playing such rock standards as "Midnight Hour" and "Louie, Louie."  Back in 1966, they even had a modest hit, "You Wouldn't Listen," one of Jim's early songwriting efforts.
    Now, their stock has suddenly skyrocketed and their sound is enormously changed.  When I asked them about their music, they threw up their hands and listed all the standard terms - hard-rock, soul, blues, etc. - then dismissed them all.
    "Our songs are generally commercial.  We use brass as part of the melody, but what we really want are songs that are humable.  We try to appeal to more people than most groups do - like a lot of people have a touch of Bach and everyone says, 'wow, that's great!' but no one sings their songs."   
    Jim added with a smile, "It doesn't sound like anything else, because it isn't the typical pattern you hear.  It's almost sophisticated.  We didn't do anything on the album that we can't do live, except for a ballad that has a violin."
    When Shakespeare said, "Beware the Ides of March," he wasn't putting Caesar on, and I'm putting you on either.  The Ides of March are a group to be aware of.