Colorado based, rock band ‘The Rouge’ has been touring the country in their van ‘White Thunder’ to share their music and love for genuine rock and roll. Playing songs from their album ‘Heat and Light’ the members hope to reach their audiences on an emotional level. The band has been playing together for three years and currently resides in Nashville whenever they aren’t on the road.

What genre of music do you consider ‘The Rouge’?

We try to just be a rock band, American rock and roll, honest rock or whatever you want to call it, honest Abe rock”

So how long have you been on tour?

A month

How many more places are you going?

One more, Richmond Virginia

Is this your first Tour?

No, we’ve been touring for a couple years now, although this would be our first time since the band started [touring] in November that we’ve been on the east coast.

Is traveling in such a small space tough? How do you manage to get along?

Were like brothers so we fight and get over it, sometimes we hate each other, sometimes we get mad but you have to allow that.

How has this tour been different from others?

This tour has been really adventurous, more than any other tour. We’ve had a lot more stories.

Could you share some?

It was a Tuesday night in a small town, a place we’ve never been and 30 people showed up ready to party. That’s probably the best part about touring, you have low expectations of a place and then you get there and it ends up being a total riot. It was basically a house party, everyone brought their own beer. It was awesome.

What else has happened?

We were in New York City in this little bar watching the baseball game and this guy got super mad because the bartender wouldn’t serve him. He went outside and just started kicking the window until it broke. The cops came and he freaked out. He was in cuffs on his chest on the side of the street and he would not stop yelling naughty words and once he ran out of naughty words to scream he just started screaming ‘yeah’.  Like ‘YEAAAH!’…. New York City is insane.”

Will ‘The Rouge’ be going on tour again?

We’ll probably be out in December again. I bet we’ll probably end up playing 280 dates next year as a guess. So I imagine we’ll be [back] here [in Wilkes-Barre] a few times.

How do you guys come up with the funds to travel?

We try to get guarantees. Right now were not funding, were in the red right now for sure. But it’s kind of what you have to do. We’re still a young band, no one really knows about us yet.

Do you like being on tour?

There’s a fine balance. When we’ve been home for too long we start to get a little stir crazy and we’re  ready to get back on the road again, a lot of the time road feels like home. When we got home this last time we kept on carrying around our van bags just because it felt so uncomfortable not to have it.”

Where do you do your laundry when your on the road?

Wherever we can. Were in a rock and roll band so were supposed to be dirty a little bit. I think we’ve all been blessed not to have really bad body odor.”

What do you hope to give to your fans and gain for yourself through rock and roll?

Everybody has a different answer. We just love rock and roll andwe want to inspire other people to love rock and roll and make them feel a part of something. We love music and it’s our passion so as long as we can support ourselves by our passion we will.”

‘The Rouge’ is now working on another album to be released this spring. Check out the band on facebook.com/therougeband.