WGLT | By Lauren Warnecke
PublishedMay 31, 2024 at 7:18 AM CDT
Life and record labels had gotten in Revis’ way—not bad blood or creative differences. The post-grunge band that got its start in Carbondale in the late '90s landed a record deal and moved to LA. The band petered out by 2005. A brief revival came around 2010. But songwriter and rhythm guitarist Nathaniel Cox, vocalist Justin Holman, bassist Bob Thiemann, guitarist Robert Davis and drummer David Piribauer have started to make music again.
Revis is back with new songs and a three-city tour featuring the band's original roster.
This revival started around 2018, when Cox started tinkering with Piribauer’s idea to write a few new Revis songs. The result is a brand-new EP called Bottles of Lighting—their first release in 12 years.
The tour kicked off in Herrin, Ill., near Carbondale, and will end at the Castle Theatre on Saturday. Being back on stage for their first live show together in decades—was “like riding a bike,” Piribauer said.
It felt good. Fans showed up. And they were all the way in.
“Having this luxury of having such a wonderful fan base, we just always thought it would be a shame to not continue making music for the love of making music—and for our fans,” he said.
With just two albums and the new EP in the band’s 30-year off-and-on tenure, Piribauer said Revis fans are the key to their staying power.
“It doesn’t happen every day,” he said. “Lots of artists don’t get to have that. That also makes it easy for us, because we enjoy making music and we have a good outlet.”
Holman’s vocal is part of the special sauce Cox taps into, separating Revis’ sound from the band members’ other musical endeavors.
David Chambers
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DC Worldwide
“This music seems like it just fits with his vocals really well,” Cox said.
In hindsight, Revis has been characterized as a post-grunge band, born out of influences gleaned from a couple of radio stations in 1990s Carbondale. They point not only to additional sources of input but time, maturity and confidence as contributing to Revis’ current sound.
“Each one of us in the last decade or two has continued down a path of music,” Holman said. “We’ve all been blessed that each one of us has done something musically and there’s not been dead space. In that time, there were things that were chipped away from each one of us or added in to each one of us that, when brought back to the table, has affected Revis—I would never say in anything but a wonderful way.”
But they still love to play the old songs. Their 2003 debut with Epic Records, Places for Breathing, propelled them into the spotlight with two radio hits: Caught in the Rain and Seven. Epic dropped the band in the middle of developing a second album.
“When we got signed, we were really young,” Thiemann said. “You give anybody an opportunity like that in the music industry—I don’t think any of us understood the gravity of that situation, the possibilities that were there, [or] how we could have used it at that time to carve out something for ourselves in the music industry.”
They don't have regrets, but also aren't willing to sign just any contract that may come their way. They're open to it—but pickier. Bottles of Lighting is self-produced, mixed and mastered by Cox and Davis. Nothing specific is planned after Saturday’s show at the Castle, though rumors swirl about the band possibly re-recording their bungled second album, Do We Have to Beg?, put out quietly without a label in 2012. Thiemann said there are “irons in the fire” and the band remains open to whatever comes next.
“To be able to come back to it at this point is huge,” Thiemann said. “The pieces that we’ve added to ourselves, mentally and emotionally, it’s such a deeper connection now. Playing these old tunes—I don’t think they’ve sounded better than they do now.”
“We’re just kind of playing it by ear, seeing how it unfolds,” Cox said. “We all have open minds about it—we’ll see where it goes.”
Revis and opening acts Luna Kai and Midnight Vultures play at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 1, at the Castle Theatre, 209 E. Washington St., Bloomington (Doors open 7 p.m.). Tickets are $25 at the door and thecastletheatre.com.
