Nick Blessing’s room is pretty vacant, except for a bed, an amplifier and four walls filled with posters.

Images of The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Who surround the space. It’s not exactly the collection of artists one would find idolized by a 13-year-old.

“We don’t really try to sound like any of them,” says Nick, bassist for Lawrence’s Living Rdkil.

“Punk means anti-establishment to me,” adds drummer David Liston. “We don’t TRY to be punk; we just ARE punk.

Nick, 14-year-old David and 13-year-old guitarist/vocalist Walter Morris sit around the room discussing how a band so young has already garnered so much attention from a town continually swarming with live music.

The answer seems simple on the surface: the novelty of youth. But one listen to the trio’s demo and it’s obvious there’s more than just a curiosity factor at work.

This group writes cool songs with catchy hooks and wicked riffs. Most importantly, the music sounds authentic. Like the drummer says, Living Rdkil really is punk.

The three Central Junior High School students sport the unusual combination of physically looking no older than their pubescent peers but simultaneously looking like rock musicians. Unlike other basement bands whose members can’t yet drive, Living Rdkil is actually accustomed to performing at area clubs and concert venues — as it will this Sunday when co-headlining a benefit show at Liberty Hall, 642 Mass.

“We’re opening our set at Liberty Hall with our own song, ‘Stay at Your House,'” Walter says. “Then we will also do some covers by The Ramones, The White Stripes and Dead Kennedys.”

The band isn’t quite clear how its name — spelled with the metal-tinged umlaut — was dreamed up. But they thought “living roadkill” sounded like an oxymoron about existence.

“Plus,” Walter explains, “we play a lot of stuff by bands that have dead people in them.”

Anarchy and benefits

Living Rdkil, from left, Nick Blessing, Walter Morris and David Liston will headline a show at Liberty Hall on Sunday. The trio of Central Junior High School students will perform at the fund-raiser for young heart transplant patient Rose Naughtin.

The original punk rock movement erupted in Britain during the mid-1970s. It was viewed as a rebellion against the status quo and the intrusive, conservative government. Raw songs and angry lyrics characterized the scene.

“Walter is big on politics,” says David, pointing to the bright sticker on his bandmate’s Epiphone guitar.

It reads: “Stop bitching. Start a revolution.”

David’s kick drum also brandishes a “Dump Bush” sticker.

“What I like about Lawrence is that it’s liberal,” Walter says. “Most of the other towns in Kansas are so much more conservative … It makes me angry sometimes that I can’t vote.”

While the members may not be starting a revolution in the political sense, they at least have some social concerns in mind. In fact, their gig Sunday is to benefit classmate Rose Naughtin. The 12-year-old is in need of a second heart transplant and will be airlifted to St. Louis whenever a donor becomes available — an expense not covered by her insurance.

All proceeds from the show will go to Rose.

“They’re real good kids,” says Rob Fitzgerald, a manager at Liberty Hall. “Walter is obviously putting this thing together for his friend, and that’s really neat. How many 13- or 14-year-olds even have that kind of a world view?”

Fitzgerald has shared the stage twice with Living Rdkil, after his group Gourmet Mushroom X invited the trio to perform at The Replay Lounge, 946 Mass., and at Liberty Hall on New Year’s Eve. Fitzgerald first learned of the fledgling band from Walter’s father Frank Morris, with whom he played many years ago in a punk act called The Guardrails.

• Living Rodkil / VibraluxSunday, May 163:30 p.m. @ Liberty HallAll ages, $7
• more info on the event

“For 13-year-old kids, they rock out,” Fitzgerald says of Living Rdkil. “They’re all really good on their instruments. The bass player guy Nick is only as tall as his bass, but he’s got the whole attitude. He’s got one foot forward, leaning back with the bass slung low. They’re (expletive) great.”

‘So Crazy’

The band started out simply enough, with Walter coming to David’s house one day to goof around on the guitar.

“We didn’t really know any of the same stuff,” recalls David, who’s drummed for more than 10 years. “I just started playing a beat, and he’d find a song that would fit that — no mics or anything. That went on for months.”

In early 2002, Nick entered the picture.

“I got a bass for Christmas, so I came over there to jam with them, and I sucked,” Nick says. “I had never touched a bass before. That was my first instrument.”

The three-piece had its debut outing in early 2003 and has performed live a dozen times. It’s appeared in area clubs such as The Replay Lounge and even atop a trailer in front of the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka.

Folks at Alibi 6 Studios, 920 Del., heard the act at one of those gigs and offered free studio time to track a song.

“They actually called us about it,” Walter says. “They’re making this AIDS benefit compilation and wanted us to be on it.”

Now Living Rdkil has a crisp recording of “So Crazy,” one of seven original songs the ensemble has written.

The teen punk rockers of Living Rdkil, from front to rear, Walter Morris Nick Blessing and David Liston, will headline a show at Liberty Hall on Sunday.

The junior high schoolers are the first to admit that their lifestyles have been affected by all the notoriety — both in the halls and around town.

“They treat us a lot different because we’re in a band,” Walter says of his classmates. “Not in a bad way. For the past month or something, everybody asks, ‘What’s going on with the band?’

“Another good thing is all the connections. You go downtown and go to stores and people know who you are.”

So are there any Living Rdkil groupies?

“We flirt with everyone — at least I do,” Walter says. “But most of us don’t have girlfriends. You can’t really have a band AND a girlfriend. Those things don’t go hand in hand.”

Looking ahead

The situation will change a bit next year when David, who is in ninth grade, heads off to Lawrence High School. (Nick and Walter are still seventh-graders.) However, the musicians believe the shift in venues won’t disrupt the group dynamic.

“Last year he was in junior high and we were only in elementary school,” Nick offers.

For now, the young-but-mighty Living Rdkil members envision this experience as one that won’t be coming to a close anytime soon.

“Unless somebody dies, we’re going to be a band all through high school,” David emphasizes.

Walter adds, “We’ll probably (be together) a few more years. But Mom said if I don’t get at least a C average in every class on my report card, we can’t keep the band this summer. If that happens we’ll get acoustic instruments or something and hang out.”