Sam Saccone / Staff Photographer / ss324006@ohiou.edu

Front Royal, a punk band out of Athens, will be perform June 5 at the Smiling Skull at 9 p.m. Its members include Alex Eiler, Ryan Ford, Mike Petruccelli and Anthony Fantozzi.

Front Royal is a punk band of Ohio University students who balance its music and schoolwork while embracing the anti-establishment, rebellious attitude of true punk rockers.

“It’s always been about having fun and enjoying what we do,” said Ryan Ford, guitarist/vocalist. “A lot of people take music a lot too seriously.”

Guitarist/vocalist Mike Petruccelli agreed, adding that the band takes its music seriously in terms of playing it, but changing the world has never been one of their goals.

Similar in sound to Dillinger Four and The Lawrence Arms, Front Royal began last school year when Ford and drummer Alex Eiler met. Petruccelli and bassist Anthony Fantozzi soon followed. All of the band members said they came together through their mutual love of punk and a great desire to play in a band while at school.

“When I was approached by (Ford and Eiler) they didn’t know what kind of band they wanted to be,” Petruccelli said.
The band’s members said they decided to play punk because it was music they would all enjoy playing.

“Athens definitely needs it,” Ford said. “I think it has got enough indie and metal to last it
for awhile.”

With their name taken from a town in Virginia, Front Royal was able to play three shows last year before the summer break, but they had to go on an unplanned hiatus Fall Quarter of this year when Eiler was in a car accident.

“(Eiler) had to have back surgery so all of Fall Quarter we only had one practice and it was really sad because there was no one to keep time,” Petruccelli said. “It was like being reunited with a lost child … once he recovered.”

With Eiler fully recovered, the band was able to start playing more shows and write more songs. While not an immediate plan, the band also hopes to use the campus’ audio production studio to record an album sometime in the future.

Currently they are concentrating on writing more songs, with the main songwriters being Petruccelli and Ford.  They often write lyrics that are cynical and pack a punch.

“You should see how much fun you can have until you get beaten up,” Petruccelli said. “It’s always been humor with us, we don’t think our band is any better than anyone else’s, but why not be a comic strip band?”

“But we are not The Family Circus of punk, we are the Marmaduke of punk,” Ford said.