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On the road with Invade Rome:
Light Eyed and Villainous album release weekend

Invade Rome
The Frequency, Empty Bottle, Cactus Club
Madison, Chicago, Milwaukee
Jan. 15 - 17, 2009

live in Milwaukee

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live in Milwaukee

Story and photos by Matt Schwenke

As if setting out with a new name to support their new album wasn't difficult enough, the Milwaukee-based rock quartet Invade Rome had mother nature to deal with too during an extremely cold three-night, three-city mini tour in support of their latest release Light Eyed and Villainous.

Formerly known as Freshwater Collins and a mainstay in the Milwaukee music scene, the group, which consists of the brothers Chris and Brian Vos on guitar and bass, Josh Tovar on guitar and Justin Krol on drums, changed their name after 13 years under the former title, in an effort to shed the jam band tag that had become affixed to their name after various festival appearances and other awkward billings over the years and to drive their more modern, more concise and louder rock sound home to a new audience.

When the band decided to change names, they had already spent more than a year and a half working independently on the album-- from penning the songs, to recording at Smart Studios in Madison with producer Beau Sorenson (who has worked in varying capacities with Death Cab for Cutie, Garbage, Tegan and Sara) and to developing artwork for the album and planning its promotion. All of that planning had to be put on hold for months in order to revisit album art, merch and promo materials and to get the word out about the new name. Heading into the string of album release shows, the vinyl still wasn't in yet, but the band's promotion was running full-steam ahead with numerous radio interview and performance slots and feature coverage through various area media outlets.

Riding along with the band on their way to Chicago on the second day, however, the mood was tentatively optimistic-- one of the coldest nights in the area in reportedly more than ten years kept downtown Madison rather empty the night before, save for a small yet responsive crowd that came to their show, and the mercury hadn't risen much by the time they finished another radio interview in Milwaukee the next morning and headed to the Windy City for an afternoon sound check at the Empty Bottle. The constant cold took a little bit of energy out of everyone, and despite the green room being a comparably balmy 49 degrees, Chris still managed to get a bit of shut-eye during the wait for show time. With fellow Milwaukee rockers Juniper Tar and Chicago's The Names That Spell and Yourself & The Air warming up the stage as openers, and the green room now up to 51 degrees from the additional people, the night began to heat up, and Invade Rome would eventually pound out their new album with bombast, welcome Juniper Tar for a collaborative end to the show, talk with fans and head out of the venue feeling good about the progression of the weekend.

It was but a fleeting moment though, as a tire on the band's trailer went flat just blocks from the venue. Luckily, the band was prepared-- the spare tire buried under guitar cases in the back of the van was almost fully inflated and the torch they carried in the van to unfreeze the trailer hinges worked great at unfreezing the lug nuts from the rim with the flat. In all, the fix only took about a half an hour as they rotated in shifts of two from the relative heat of the van, which ought to be some sort of cold weather record, but by the time van, and trailer, rolled into Milwaukee, the morning sun was being filtered through the start of another snow storm.

Not to be daunted, and with the creature comforts of playing close to home on everyone's mind, the band re-congregated later that night for a strong turnout of family, friends, fellow musicians and fans at the Cactus Club, where Invade Rome turned in their best performance out of the three nights. "Pretty Demons," the opening track off the new album, was particularly fiery, and the psychadelic-tinged "Play In The Band" was particularly ominous. Expanding the set from the previous two nights, the band seemed to give all the energy, and voices, they had left after the hectic and more than ice-cold week. Perhaps as a storied start to a conquest of a magnitude their name implies, the next big thing on the band's horizon is a yet-to-be-determined appearance at South by Southwest in Austin, Tex., where it at least ought to be warm.