St. Louis music promoter John Mancuso/Photo by Angie Knost

Concert promoter John Mancuso has been making St. Louis rock music roll for several years. Now, he’s out to make punk pop.

It hasn’t been poppin’ for a while now, but he wants to restore what he sees as a broken St. Louis punk scene.

“I think it’s in the process of rebuilding,” says Mancuso, who exclusively books punk, rock and metal shows, and more recently even hip-hop at Pop’s.

“I think we’ll see some great things in 2009 as the scene comes back together,” he says.

Part of that means rejuvenating the 10-year-old website he took over two years ago, stlpunk.com. It’s an all-encompassing go-to for band profiles, a concert calendar, classified ads, a forum and more.

Mancuso will attempt to bring awareness to the website and local punk music with the Stlpunk.com Winter Show, a concert at 5 p.m. Saturday at Pop’s.

Performing will be Blink-182 tribute band Blank-281, along with Hereafterthis, Underwater Bear, Bamf, Left on Empire, At the Wall and Hunter Gatherer.

Blank-281 is a Chicago band, though the rest of the lineup is from St. Louis.

“People will come and see Blank-281 and then see the local bands as well,” Mancuso says. “This creates hype.”

Mancuso says he’s content working exclusively with Pop’s, a venue he views as underrated and possibly even dismissed because of its location between two strip clubs.

“A lot of kids aren’t allowed to go to the East Side,” he says. “I do love it there at Pop’s.”

But it was the original Creepy Crawl downtown, which recently closed after moving to Grand Center in 2006, that helped Mancuso make his name. Mudvayne, Panic at the Disco, Hawthorne Heights and Avenged Sevenfold are among the acts Mancuso booked at Creepy Crawl.

The Grand Center club “didn’t have the same vibe” as the downtown spot, says Mancuso, who has supported other venues like Fubar and 2 Cents Plain.

Mancuso’s music background goes back to Crystal City High School a decade ago, when he was in a number of metal bands, none of which he cares to name. After one of his bands broke up, Mancuso, who also dabbled in punk at the time, moved to California, determined to work in music.

“I e-mailed record label after record label, trying to find a way to work in music,” he says. “If I wasn’t going to be in a band, I was going to find some way to work in music.”

Mancuso landed an internship with rocker Nikki Sixx’s record label in 2000 and did that during the day while delivering pizza at night.

That didn’t last long. He went on to work for metal label Rotten Records in LA, while at the same time booking St. Louis bands into venues back home.

“At a certain point, I realized booking bands was something I really enjoyed doing,” he says.

Mancuso booked a St. Louis band called Vampire Moose into Pop’s, which helped forward his move back to St. Louis in 2001.

“I made a ton of money and realized that if I went back to St. Louis, it would be easier for me to make a name for myself,” he says.

Tickets for the Stlpunk.com Winter Show are $7 online or from a participating band, and $10 at the door. Get more info at stlpunk.com or popsrocks.com.