According to legendary metal act the smalls, reuniting with your band is as bittersweet as having an affair with your ex.
“But the sex is really fun in the meantime,” said bassist Corb Lund, who hasn’t played with singer Mike Caldwell, guitarist Doug Bevans and drummer Terry Johnson since they split up after the Goodbye Forever Tour of 2001.
“We called it Goodbye Forever, but here we are again. I guess we learned from our mistake. We’re a little more reluctant to say `never’ these days,” said Bevans.
The smalls had gone through a tumultuous period before their breakup, losing their master tapes when their record label went out of business and making a new album on their own. They considered moving to Austin, Texas together, but not everybody was on board. Meanwhile, Lund’s country career was starting to take off.
“In the smalls we always worked on everything and hashed it out together,” said Caldwell. “It was a drawn out process, but that’s the way we did it. We each had specific talents, and I think it helped all of us to put each other’s ideas into the music.”
Bevans agreed.
“It was based on us all coming together collectively and just playing together and feeding off each other. We felt that this strength of ours would not be present if one of us wasn’t there.”
But with a number of local bands pestering them to reunite, they finally relented this year.
“We’ve been inundated the last five years with bands relentlessly begging for us to do this thing, and the timing is right. It helps that there’s been this interest from festivals to get the ball rolling,” said Bevans.
Their upcoming show at Spiritbar on November 4 is already sold out, which speaks to the passionate fan base the smalls have here in the Kootenays.
“We were one of the first bands to ever go into the interior of B.C. We made a point of it. And Nelson was definitely one of those places that became a hotspot for us,” said Bevans, who has already begun the tour. He said getting back on stage after all these years was surprisingly easy.
“I was a little bit insecure about stepping up there, but as soon I switched my amp on and saw the token person, front-row, wearing a smalls T-shirt, I knew it was go time.”
For more information visit humehotel.com/spiritbar.
