Amid a brightly lit stage, with burning lights adorning its small tent-like ceiling, four men take residency in its small corridors for 45 minutes -- that's all the time they need to break the walls down with their sound.

Watching from the steps to the stage, they watch their guitars, drums, organ, and whatever odds and ends become plugged in to the speakers. Several strings are plucked on one of the guitars, testing its strength. It echoes loudly in the stage area and the band members smile at its high decibel loudness, knowing they soon would get to continue that wild and untamed sound.

Ready to launch blasts of sounds into the audience standing only a fingertip away, the band steps on stage, anxious to start what it came there for. With long brown locks hanging onto his shoulders, a vibrant band leader steps to the microphone and watches the crowd assemble. Turning back to his band mates, he cues them. 1...2...3. Out of the silence of the stage broken only by the crowd's cheer, the band roars to life, electricity from the instruments flowing into the throng that stand watching and letting the music take over its hand movements.

The guitars urgently scream into the audience with a sound so enticing that its listeners can't help but nod their heads. The band leader steps up to the microphone and begins to deliver his lines with power and wildness, almost howling into the device.

A middle-aged man in the forefront of the crowd decides to dance around passionately, sensing a beat he was familiar with but had a new found energy. But who can blame him as added to the driving guitars and voice that never let go is a organ that echoes the past and makes any listener think, "This truly is rock and roll."

This sound, coming from Milwaukee band Father Phoenix, filled the air last Friday at the Cascio Interstate Music Stage at Summerfest. Tonight, Friday, July 10, the band is back at the Cactus Club, a venue it's called home, with a new EP called "Large Bodies" in hand. Don't expect the band to lower the volume or intensity, or even a letdown from its previous show. This band has high voltage rock and roll in its blood.

"A typical Father Phoenix show is sloppy but somehow together, waiting for a complete collapse that never comes," says lead singer and guitarist Kris Maedke-Russell, the man with the brown locks. "It's loud and wild and far out all the rest of it."

He's joined on stage by Ryan Marszalek (bass), Tyler Chicorel (drums), and Keith Stendler (organ). While ever-changing its sound, Father Phoenix, remains committed to keeping its hard hitting and loudness in tact. With a blend of rock and roll that touches in punk and psychedelic realms, the band blasts barriers away and makes for a energetic show.

"The progression of our sound grows as we become more comfortable with ourselves and our chemistry together," says Maedke-Russel. "We have always strived to break personal barriers through our music, and every time we have shifted significantly in our style, it is in no small part due to the risks we take on a personal level."

Maedke-Russel started the band in early 2005 with longtime friend Chicorel out of boredom at a loft in Riverwest. But soon they found that they had something they really enjoyed and worth checking into.

"I'm not sure if either of us had any preconceived notion about the future of the band, or bringing it to a higher level, we just wanted to play for fun and to create what we weren't hearing around us," says Maedke-Russel.

They added a bass player about half a year later, noticing they needed something else. When that bass player left unexpectedly, they didn't have to wait too long for a replacement. Marszalek, who had played at shows with them, mentioned that he'd that be up for playing with them if they wanted. It turned out to be a decision they're glad they made.

"This was a pretty big risk for us that paid off big time," says Maedke-Russel. "He ended up being the missing link."

Two years later, Father Phoenix started recording the "Large Bodies" EP but one thing was standing in its way. The threesome needed to get some organ in their mix to help solidify their sound. With Stendler, they gained a whole new element to their sound and they decided to keep him around.

For many who hear this combination of these elements to the band, they're often left awestruck at their intense shows and recordings. Eric Uecke, the owner of the Cactus Club, is longtime friends with the band.

"They have some pretty interesting melodies, super tight, and tight as a drum. They really have their sh*t going on," says Uecke. "I definitely see some Deep Purple influence going on, '70s classic metal, classic heavy rock vibe going."

With the Cactus Club show, the band plans to offer its audience a keepsake of their experience with the "Large Bodies" EP. The EP, released by Forge Again Records from Chicago, showcases the final product of the band as a three piece and last songs Maedke-Russel wrote just by himself.

"It is a story that follows a nation of tyrants from glory to collapse in a compact, four song format. And it looks sharp, too!" says Maedke-Russel.

With all members contributing to their songs, their sound comes off as clearly focused and a truly band effort despite its wild nature, and as Maedke-Russel says, everyone leaves their fingerprints on the songs. Listeners will get a chance to hear more of this progression sometime in the next two years or so when the release a new album that they recently recorded.

But it's already evident in their live shows. They're all good friends and it shows on stage.

"I try to have a joke with everyone in my band when we play," says Maedke-Russel. "It keeps it casual when we can laugh with each other when we are up there."

In the studio this mood helps the band pick the songs it wants to record and taking risks has its merits.

"When we are rehearsing, a song never makes it unless we laugh at it," says Maedke-Russel. "We ask ourselves, ‘Can we really get away with this?' That's when we know to keep it around."

He adds that at practices there are never bad feelings if a part doesn't work for the rest of the band. This is due to the fact that "everything is just off the cuff or part of an improvisation and not something that has been worked at home by one of us."

With the band in sync with its songs, expect the band to show off its enjoyment of what it does, at high volume.

"I think the songs mean more to us now that they are a product of a community effort, and that happiness certainly is carried over into our live show," says Maedke-Russell.

Catch that wild, untamed happiness and raw energy at 10 p.m. tonight.