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Roomful of Strangers get familiar
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
When Mick McIuan was 4 years old, he woke one evening to find that his Austintown home had been invaded by five masked and armed men.
The men had blindfolded his mother and his baby sitter and tied them up with lamp and telephone cord.
The intruders were looking for a Sicilian family that lived next door, possibly as part of an assassination attempt, said McIuan. The family wasn’t home, so they entered McIuan’s home and held his family hostage until his father came home from his shift at the mill.
One of the intruders was wearing a blue flower-print dress — which he took from the neighbors’ house — and carrying a pistol and a purse.
“It’s all a game, Mikey,” said one of the thugs to the child, his breath in the youngster’s face.
When McIuan’s father came home, the intruders interrogated him about the neighbors and eventually left.
The ordeal was finally over for McIuan, but the dark memory would forever become a part of him. Decades later, the strange terror of that night still surfaces in the music of his band, Roomful of Strangers.
Based in Orlando, Fla., Roomful of Strangers is a rising act (it was invited to perform at the South by Southwest Festival) that is currently touring its new album, “Bad Vacation.” It will make its first appearance in Youngstown — where some of its deepest roots lie — on St. Patrick’s Day with an early show at Rust Belt Tap House and another at Cedars West End.
“Bad Vacation” is upbeat punk-pop, very catchy but with a touch of menace, like a smile that sometimes morphs into a sinister leer.
“We’re known for being Freudian and strange,” said McIuan, the singer, in a phone interview. “A lot of the dark urges I have, the dark stuff, is a direct reflection of my experience [of being held hostage as a child].”
At first, Roomful of Strangers — which also includes co-founder Erik Bundy (bass, keyboards), Nik Sedilla (guitar) and Austin Wulff (drums) — wore ski masks on stage.
“We’ve smoothed over into more pop,” said McIuan. “There are dark undertones, but it’s fun.”
The band is still aggressive when performing, but with more of a theatrical effect now.
The new Roomful of Strangers album was produced by Kramer (Galaxie 500, Sonic Youth). The first leg of its tour is taking the act northward with stops in Georgia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Youngstown.
The city, in fact, permeates many of the songs on “Bad Vacation.”
The title track is about a girl from Youngstown that McIuan — a Struthers High graduate who attended Youngstown State University and also did a stint with the U.S. Army in Iraq — dated. She took a “bad vacation” — i.e., drugs and crime.
“Trash Can Annie” is about a bag lady in the city; “Summers In Space” is about a notorious drag queen from Boardman in the ’50s; and “Perfect Stay” is a reflective song that mentions Youngstown.