The Shoebox: Rome Romeo

Meet Rome Romeo, a purty cool band we have yet to talk about on the IndiePit Blog. They’ve been around for a couple of years, pieced together from the remnants of Fifth Hour Hero (No Idea Records). The five-member Canadian gang has been drawing comparisons to PJ Harvey and Gun Club, although, at the end of the day, they’re really more of a punk-inflected experimental garage-rock act with someone who sounds like Nancy Wilson at the mic.

Rome Romeo just eked out their first release, a self-titled EP, in late July on Machette Records. And that makes for good timing, because we just recently received a contribution to “The Shoebox” from bassist Olivier Maguire. The ‘Box is a good fit for them, too, as earlier this summer they played with Obits, and that band’s frontman, Rick Froberg, helped launch the series.

Here’s what Maguire sent, prefaced by a note she included:

Hey Kurt, so here’s my contribution. My first idea was to just put a set list of our first “real” show. I say “real” cause the first time we ever played in front of people was at a show/party at our friend’s loft on June 12. But that show wasn’t announced or anything. It was mainly an occasion to party with friends and play music. Our first announced show was when we played with Obits and Red Mass here in Montreal at Il Motore on July 22nd. I’ll stick to that first idea. Attached is our set list for that night.

I’m putting a little extra here. When you first contacted me to do this, you sent me the link for Rick Froberg’s contribution. It was a nice coincidence that we had just played with his band Obits. But the coincidence is going a little further than that. Rick had put ACCA DACCA (AC/DC’s special name) at two places in the list he sent you. No, no, no, the coincidence is not that I just got asked to join AC/DC but that … [I recently worked] on the AC/DC show here in Montreal at the Olympic Stadium. It was a huge show, something like 60,000 people showed up. Really impressive. My working pass is also attached for that night.