After gaining notoriety in the rock community in and around Madison, Royal Bliss is coming back to Madison. The band is currently on tour with Bobaflex and will return to the Regent Street Retreat, formerly known as The Annex.
Royal Bliss, veterans of many concerts in the area, has played Taste of Madison on two occasions. Their tour with Bobaflex took them to the Back Bar in Janesville on Feb. 2.
“It was a really good lineup. To have two bands like that at the Back Bar in one night was pretty impressive,” said Paul Michaels, music director at 105.9 The Hog. “I know they had a pretty good turnout. They were happy with it.”
Neal Middleton, lead singer, says that this is one their best places to play because of number of fans.
“Those were some of the best shows we played period,” Middleton said. “I love it from Madison through Quincy Ill. It’s great. I can’t wait to get back up there and actually play in Madison again.”
Middleton labels the band as just a “good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll band.” Royal Bliss is in the music industry for the love of the music whether it is writing and producing a mellow, acoustic song or a heavy rock single, he said.
“Wherever we are, it tends to work,” Middleton said. “It’s not so soft that the metal heads are going to hate us and we’re not so heavy that the people that like the mellow stuff are going to hate us.”
In their variety of rock music, the songs range from light-hearted, fun and romantic based songs like “I Want You (For Christmas)” to more serious songs like “Brave,” the band’s own tribute to the troops that have served in recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or in previous wars like the Vietnam War.
“I wrote that one a long time ago when my buddy was getting enlisted into the army and I was thinking about that whole situation. Things were pretty crazy overseas and in Iraq,” Middleton said. “My father was in Vietnam and I have a lot of friends who are over there.”
The lyrics came from Middleton’s frustration with there being such a division among the people during the wars in the last decade.
“Without these guys, I wouldn’t be able to get up on stage and sing and say the words I say with the freedom I have to say them,” he said. “It’s kind of a battle cry. It’s strictly for the soldiers. It’s not for one side or the other.”
Their style that is a mixture of the heavy sound and softer sound earned them a spot in the Billboard top 200 and the top spot on the Billboard Heatseekers chart in 2009 with their album “Life In-Between.”
“We felt really accomplished,” Middleton said. “It was fun to at least say ‘we did it and we were there.'”