Cincinnati’s most raucous bunch of guys, The Lions Rampant, are gearing up for their first ever European tour at the end of summer, in support of their 2010 full-length debut, It’s Fun to Do Bad Things. A title like that describes all too well what these “blues infused, garage rockers” are all about, not just charactically but musically as well. They create a “down and dirty” sound that takes you back decades, with “60′s guitar licks and wildly soulful melodies.” Although the band has seen various lineup changes over the past several years, each personality that has come to represent this band and their music, has maintained a “work hard, play hard” attitude, thus bringing controlled musical mayhem to the Cincinnati music scene and beyond.
Front man Stuart Mackenzie says that for the debut album, they “wanted to expand their musical horizons and focus tighter on songwriting while remaining true to their wild and free, rock and roll/punk rock beginnings.” The album is a “coming of age story of a young romantic and his search for love, taking things to the limit, enjoying the nightlife and falling in and out of love.” Mackenzie goes on to add that “Rock and roll has always been about bad behavior as The Shangrilas once said. But we’re not what you would call ‘bad evil’ of course. The Lions Rampant are definitely ‘good evil’ and that’s what this record is all about.”
You’ll have plenty of chances to catch The Lions Rampant before they head off overseas; they’re playing at Northside Tavern on Friday, July 2; at Lexington’s Green Lantern on Friday, July 9; in-studio at Q102 on Wednesday, July 14; Thursday, July 22 at the Matinee in Akron; Friday, July 23 at Cleveland’s Happy Dog; Friday, July 30 at Dayton’s Canal Street Tavern and Friday, August 13 on Fountain Square for Indie Summer, where they’ll be performing with both the Buffalo Killers and The Guitars. They kick off their European tour on September 30, where they’ll be playing at Liverpool’s Mello Mello with Go Heeled.