Bands that achieve some level of success, be it having a hit song, critical acclaim, or a devoted fanbase, never need to stay broken up forever. If timed well enough, a band can tour themselves into a retirement home.
Open any British music magazine and comb through the concert listings.
The first thing you'll realize is that bands long forgotten--many
assumed to be broken up years ago--are still actively touring.
The secret to a successful band reunion? The band has to stay broken up for a long time.
Band reunions: No one ever goes away for good
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Nostalgia's
a powerful thing. As we age, we tend to retreat to the comforts of our
young and dumb days, those days when music hit us hard and left a
mark. For some, those comforts can be relived by seeing Psychedelic
Furs at Metro next month, or Soundgarden at Lollapalooza...maybe even Rush at the Charter One in July (Time Machine tour! Time Machine
tour!).
The most successful and enduring reunions are those
where a band waits a decade or more to resurface. That allows enough time
for the band's legend and meaning to truly sink in. More importantly, it opens the door for the following generation to discover the
band and grow up wishing that they'd had the chance to see the band in
the first place.
Plenty of bands do the reunion thing right. Soundgarden's return is well-timed. Alice in Chains pulled off 2009's comeback of the year. Neither band was in a hurry to reunite, for very different reasons. In both cases, the reunions happened at times that felt appropriate.
That's where Billy Corgan messed up.
Smashing Pumpkins called it quits in 2000. Less than five years later, Corgan used the local press to herald the band's return (and by band, I mean Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin...and others). The Pumpkins were never gone long enough to let the wave of nostalgia wash them into the future. This once-mighty and influential band is currently struggling to remain vital with its new music, while those who grew up with them in the 90s have moved on. Give it ten years, Billy. They'll be back.
And then there's Limp Bizkit. Sweet Christ, and then there's Limp Bizkit.
Whatever the acceptable "stay broken up timeframe" is for bands, Limp Bizkit needed to add five years to that number. I have no doubt that there will come a day when Limp Bizkit's special brand of once-lucrative mook rock will again strike the right chords with the public. When it does happen, though, it'll be borne of the same sense of ironic appreciation that allowed '70s disco nights to happen in bars and clubs in the early '90s. Dear Fred Durst, it's too soon. Not helping matters is the fact that you've just released what may very well be the worst song in the history of ever.
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