If you are fed up with paying expensive door fees to watch a DJ spin tunes in a nicotine-fragrant local club, are just a hair-short of 21, or want to relax before a big Thursday night, the University Activities Board and the Second Street garage might have the answer for you.

The "DJs At The Garage" is a free concert series for students that will feature a different weekly beat-head on the wheels-of-steel every other Thursday afternoon on the Plaza Stage by 2nd St. garage near the turnaround on the north side of the union.

"All different kinds of techno .... trance, house, drum and bass, jungle, etc.," UA student and UAB National Director Rachel Keller said via e-mail of the variety of tunes. "It depends on the DJ for that night. There is generally one DJ per show but there have been tag team sets in the past."

UAB would also like to expand the DJ sets out to campus hip-hop heads.

"Our goal is to provide the campus with a variety of music and satisfy the diverse musical tastes of as many students that we can," Keller said.

The series kicks off the fall 2003 season tonight with local Epic Trance spinster Tyler Seth.

Although the DJ series was around last year, the time slot did little to generate excitement.

"We started it last year once a month on Friday nights from 7-8:30 p.m., but had a poor turnout so we moved it to every other Thursday, 5:30-7 p.m.," Keller said.

She hopes the new time slot will attract more students.

"It's at a time and day where more people are around campus," she said. "People tend to get dinner in the union around that time and we hope that they will hear the music and come check it out. Plus students that go out on Thursday night can come check out the DJs before they go out."

Marialine "Moochie" Bennen, UAB local/regional concerts director and UA junior, concurred.

"This new time slot will definitely help us out because not only does it offer more opportunities for your less complicated Thursday schedule, it is a lot more commuterfriendly for the students that live off campus and wouldn't want to be here late on a Friday night," Bennen said.

All local DJs are encouraged to get involved and perform for the academic masses. Keller said UAB accepts and invites demos to be sent to UAB Concerts.

"We'd love to get more demos, so that we can bring more of a variety of talent!" Keller said.

DJs get paid by UAB. Also fortunate for local DJs is the fact that most national acts are too expensive to hire for the allotted UAB budget, so this is one of those rare cases where the spotlight will consistently be on local talent.

The main spotlight at the DJ shows, however, will be on the audience. Getting outdoors and off of the computer with your mind on anything else but school work is something every student needs.

"It's an opportunity to check out a local music scene that is often overlooked," Keller said. "Students can come dance, eat, socialize, and take a break from their studies."