When many of us were still enjoying the blissful days of elementary school, the Riverdales were rocking hard, living the rock star life most only dream of. Formed in 1994 under the name Screeching Weasel, the punk band came onto the scene with their debut self-titled album and toured with Green Day in 1995.
Although they split after their second album in 1997, the band came together again in 2003 to record their supposedly final album. Riverdales frontman Ben Foster took some time to catch us up on how the band’s been doing, their upcoming release and their show in Madison on July 25.
Now that they’re back together and doing live shows after what was supposed to be the end, Foster explained what happened.
“Most recently we were doing vocals for outtakes for our previous albums and we just had a really good time. We started talking about doing another album and within a couple months we were writing new stuff and recording,” Foster said.
While finding their groove on the last two albums, the Riverdales found not much has changed in their sound over the last 15 years.
“I’d like to think its better now. Anyone can go out and experiment — music critics and music snobs have a tendency to say that’s what they want. For myself, I like bands who do something and keep doing it well, the ones who work within the confines of a formula they came up with and perfected,” Foster said. “I think it’s an admirable and smart thing to do. That’s what the fans want, they don’t want the same record over and over again, but they don’t want you to experiment with horns and guitars and that kind of thing. … I think that when I’ve gone wrong somewhere, I tried to hard to reject that and consciously do something different or outside my comfort zone.”
The band’s six-year hiatus ends with their shows and new album, Invasion USA, which is set to be released July 14. Although they’re playing live shows again, things will be a little different this time around.
“We’re not touring, we’re doing fly-ins, which is much more my speed. Sometimes we drive to Chicago. We do weekends here and there,” Foster said. “I can go in and be able to financially justify doing the shows and not get in the situation where you burn out, and when you’re on the road with your band mates in a van you end up getting in fights. Doing it this way, everyone is just fresher and happier.”
The Riverdales are staying quite busy with their show at the Majestic soon after Invasion USA’s release. The album is the first priority, but they’ve got a lot on their plate.
“We want to give people who have never seen us a chance to see us live. We’re trying to eventually do both bands [Screeching Weasel and The Riverdales], but I don’t know when that exactly will be. Right now we are just focusing on the release in Madison,” Foster said.
When asked what we can expect from the punk rock veterans at their Madison show, Foster is optimistic.
“Its going to be a good show, we’ve got a set that’s about 40 to 50 minutes long with stuff from every album, but new stuff too,” Foster said. “Not real heavy with the new stuff, it’s just sprinkled in here and there. But I think it will be a really good show.”
The Riverdales will be at the Majestic tonight 9 p.m.
