The Audrey Ball Band returned to Elon University’s campus for a special reunion performance at College Street Taphouse Oct. 10. The show brought alumni and students together during homecoming weekend for a night of classic rock hits. 

The last time the band performed in Taphouse was May 2006 when the building was still named Lighthouse Tavern. Lead guitarist Michael Aceto, who the band members called Ace, said he was the one who came up with the idea to get everyone on stage again. 

“It started percolating a couple years ago,” Aceto said. “I started to get back into playing guitar after kind of putting it down for a little while and started getting to thinking about, I wonder everybody else is up to these days, and it'd be really cool if we did a reunion show.”

The idea turned into reality, and the band spent the days leading up to Saturday’s show rehearsing the same songs they played in 2006. For a lot of them, they said, it all felt familiar. 

“It’s pretty crazy that we haven’t done these songs together in two decades, and you start to remember how we used to do them as we’re rehearsing them,” Aceto said.

“It’s a muscle memory, it is. It’s weird,” lead singer Audrey Ball Guest said. 

“I don’t know what I ate for breakfast today, but …” drummer Cade Colgate said. 

“But you still know how to play ‘The Ocean’ by Led Zeppelin,” guitarist Brandon Gauthier continued. 

Two decades ago, the band played venues around campus and rehearsed in whatever space they could find, from residence halls to attics. 

“I think we used to practice in an attic in Gibsonville that was full of empty gumball machines,” bassist Jason Walston said. 

Gauthier said he was excited to experience the thrill of being on stage again like he did in college. 

“It’s before you’ve started your whole life. You’re on stage and you’re blaring it and you’re rocking out and it’s just phenomenal,” Gauthier said. “It is a genuine pleasure and delight to get way back into that just for a night and to feel that again.” 

While many of them went off to have musical careers of their own, Ball said they never thought they’d be on stage together again, especially at their 20-year reunion. 

“You don’t get this opportunity to go back and relive something, like when you move on, you think it’s over,” Ball Guest said. “Ace, I will be so grateful to him till the end of time for putting forward the effort to getting this together.” 

There was high energy in Taphouse during the entire performance, similar to what the band members experienced 20 years ago.