Yes, the much discussed Roman Traffic Stripped Down show is finally here! We’ve completely revamped our usual set so you can all come to a show where you can actually hear yourselves think! If you are thinking to yourself, “How is this going to work?”, go hear for yourself at our MySpace where we’ve posted “stripped” versions of Acquired Attire and Halls and Butchered Columns. Where did we get the inspiration for such an idea? Right here:

See you sexies at O’Brien’s! Doors are at 9pm!

steve

Hello there! Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

We were fortunate enough this year to celebrate Halloween twice. Last weekend we played at Dodge Street in Salem with KMC and High Tolerance. Man, what a great show. Always good to see a whole crowd rocking Halloween costumes a week before the actual holiday.

Here’s a sick video of the show, filmed by Bob Bowser from Keep Me Conscious and edited by the one and only Matty A!

Come back soon. We’ll be talking about this Friday’s special “Stripped Down” show!

Just got home from a nice full weekend of writing and recording between our practice space and Matt’s up-and-coming home studio. Not really stuff that you could call “new”, but some new renditions of some of our favorite songs from “Calico” and “Three Four”. Even though live and recorded our songs can come across as heavy, we’re finding that they work really well as scaled back, stipped down songs too. If you heard our performance on WZLX a few weeks back, we were really inspired by how a song like “Acquired Attire” came out as a less distorted, waltz-esque feeling song. So we’ve chosen 6 songs from our catalogue and done a similar overhaul on each of them. It’s really surprising how well they are coming together. We’ll be performing them all in this rendition on November 6th at O’Brien’s in Allston. We’ll post more details in the next week or so as the date approaches but we figured we owed everyone an update on what we’ve been doing to keep busy.

Also, check back this week for some details on this Saturday’s gig at Dodge Street Bar & Grille in Salem, MA with Keep Me Concious. If you’re like us and like Halloween so much that you want to celebrate it a week early, this is the show for you. More to come…

steve

Remember how I promised some news about a surprise show last night? Well here it is! This Friday, October 9th, we will be playing at the Pickled Onion with Keep Me Conscious for drummer Rob Wu’s birthday! We’re stoked to be sharing the stage with them again! Definitely make sure to come by, and pleeease, say hi to Rob when you’re there! He’s really a great guy, but he has a lot of different “looks”. So to help you spot him in the crowd, here’s a reference guide for you! I personally like him best in acid-wash jeans. Happy B Day Rob!

steve
RT

We have returned from The Dewey Beach Music Conference unscathed! We met some amaaazing people over the weekend and had so much fun that we cried like it was our last day at Summer camp when we were packing up. Oh the funny things that happened…

We arrived at Dewey Beach Friday morning at 6am and Evan and I watched the sunrise on the beach like an elderly couple. We cursed at the birds and dog walkers that passed by. We tried waking the others in the van by blasting “Invisible Touch” by Genesis, but it was no use. If that won’t wake them, nothing will. Alex and Matt did manage to watch the sunset later on but it was skewed by a band of 8 year olds covering Olivia Newton John.

After our gig later that night, Ben and I met a couple of awesome girls from Pennsylvania who brought all of us to a condo where we sang Pat Benetar and AC/DC covers with a live band performing in a living room. In the morning, pictures surfaced of me wearing a bright orange furry hat. I think it was made from the scalp of a Dr. Seusse creature. I wept.

Saturday we had nothing to do except hang out and catch some music industry expert panels (Education!). Alex took notes! So after all that we cut loose and watched a ton of sick bands all night. Evan missed out on a bunch of stuff because he “feels like shit after eating so much sea life”. He claims his night was fulfilled by watching a Married With Children marathon in the hotel. Got to admit, it does sound pretty awesome. Matt and I got a little out of control watching The States (our boys from New York) set. He threw me about 10 feet, causing my full drink fly all over everyone behind me. I provoked it I suppose. I pushed him into the butt of a cougar who was attempting to grind on him. Needless to say, we had a hard time making eye contact with strangers for a few hours after that mess.

Sunday, we left Delaware at about 10am and had a pretty smooth ride home. That is until on highway 84 where we witnessed a 3 car accident of epic proportions directly in front of us. We pulled over and carried a bus full of sick children off of a burning bus before it exploded. The nuns tried to thank us and wanted to know our names, but we declined. We don’t need that kind of publicity. We trash hotels, shake up every city we play, and put Satanic messages on our records to corrupt your children. If word got out of what we did, we would lose all that in an instant. Next thing you know, we are opening for The Wiggles next world tour. Nope. No way. Not going to happen.

So anyways, I was going to tell you all about the gig we have Friday night but that’s going to have to wait until tomorrow. For now though, check out some pics that are surfacing from our weekend on our Flickr page! Boo ya! Special thanks to Danielle for the pics!

steve

Hey All!

We’re leaving tonight for our second appearance at the Dewey Beach Music Conference in Dewey Beach, Delaware! We’ll be playing Friday night at 9:40 PM on the Bottle and Cork Main Stage. We had so much fun last year, met a bunch of really cool people who we hope to hook up with again. This year is represented well, with our friends The Lights Out, The States and Planeside all rocking with us!

We should have plenty of ridiculous stories to tell when we get home, so stay tuned. Here is the website for the conference, so check it out!

http://www.deweybeachfest.com/dbmc/

See you in a few days!
Evan

We’ll see you tonight at TT’s for The Lights Out CD release of “Color Machine”!

Download the new tracks from “Three Four” right here! You can pay whatever you want, or pay nothing at all. This widget gives you the ability to download the songs for free, so long as you tell five friends about Roman Traffic. All we want is for you to have the songs and for new people to hear it!

Stop watching the Heroes season premiere and read this. What’s that? You don’t watch Heroes? Good for you! You are an upstanding citizen with a brain!

For those of you that missed our last Boston gig (we have your names on a list) we are back from our tour and giving you another chance this Friday at TT the Bear’s Place this Friday! Do not wind up on the other list! We are supporting our good friends, The Lights Out, for their CD Release with Boston heroes (not the TV show) Township and Reverse! We’re on at 9pm so don’t give us your Sally-Face excuses! You can get tickets at the door, or you can be a big boy and purchase them in advance by clicking the link below:

THIS ONE!! CLICK ME!!

See you Friday!

Sorry for being such a jerk tonight. Especially to you Heroes fans. House premeired tonight too. Let’s make fun of those people next time. Together.

steve

Thanks for the epic opening line, Homer.

We have returned from our tour! Sick, Bearded, and Tired. But still ready to rock, of course. Here are some highlights and lessons learned:

- Never judge a book (a club) by its cover (by the outside, even if it looks like a cabin in the middle of nowhere).
- If a bar challenges you to kill a keg, do it. Maybe wait until after you’re done playing to begin your quest.
- Bring a battery powered hair straightener.
- Ohio is wicked far away.
- If you roll into any Southern town with 13 dudes and sing Karaoke, you will make friends.
- If you roll into any Southern town with 13 dudes, you will make friends anways.
- Florida is wicked hot.
- Don’t take Skully’s shit without asking.
- Don’t open a rock club in Orlando across the street from a crazy Hatian family. Don’t.
- Anybody can have a yard and advertise it as a Campground on the internet.
- Matamoras, PA knows how to party.
- Robby Wu from KMC found the cure for the common cold; sleep for 36 hours.
- If you have a band, try to not promote a show at a Southern Baptist Med School.
- Enticing Southern Baptist Med students with lines like “you want to fucking party!?” and “$5 all you can drink!” will not help.
- 10 miles to the gallon is nothing to brag about.
- New York City is awesome, just not until after 10pm on a Friday night.
- Tattoos of fists giving the middle finger while holding a lightening bolt rule.
- Don’t go to Katz. Katz has rats.
- Some people should not attempt to grow beards.
- Matt and I are Fooz Ball champions.
- If you and some friends lift a van off the ground by yourselves, there is probably a truck behind it helping you.
- No one in Branchville, NJ can be trusted. No one.
- Bikini girls wash vans better than anybody. Period.

Two Vans, One Trailer Tour… You shall be missed.

steve

Day 6 of the Two Vans One Trailer Tour!

We have the day off and are resting at a really nice camp site in Ohio while Bob gets some routine maintenance done on our van. They have showers and clean bathrooms. All the comforts of home. Oh yay tour! Our fellow campers are super nice and neighborly. They have patios built on to their campsites and everything. Beer and horseshoes will pass the time nicely. The Mayor here helped us park our vans in a convenient spot.

The show last night at HI-FI rocked. It was a sick rock club in Lakewood, Ohio with awesome sound and lights. Thanks to Dana and Skully. It was “kick-the-keg” night and you know that’s exactly what we did. 109 beers later that’s the type of mayhem that has been occurring on this tour. The other bands were awesome. Endo Orphans, Maid Mayriad, and Space Goblin were all swell. Chelsea, who was bartending that evening, took a nice photo of all of us that can be viewed at RockOutEnt.com. Check it out. We’ll see you when we get back.

Much Love,
Maty Vamp
Keep Me Conscious