Indecision reunites for a nostalgic gig after calling it quits in 1993. See the show Saturday at Alley Katz.

No Regrets

When the Charlottesville-based band Indecision broke up in 1993, guitarist Aaron Evans says it was without bitterness but with a sense that a good musical race had run its course. The nearly 10-year ride through bars and theaters across the country had been a blast, but the band thought it was time to move on.

“Growing up comes into play,” Evans, 34, says with a smile. He also says the band was never really about playing the big rock-star game. “We knew we didn’t have that marketability.”

Of course, Evans admits it’s nice to look back once in a while. Indecision will do that Saturday, April 22, at Ally Katz when the original members hit the stage for a reunion. Old fans can expect familiar tunes and some surprises. “It’s good to get the ya-yas out…,” Evans says. “We’ll pull something way out of the closet. You gotta’ throw a curve ball.”

The band began throwing the familiar and unlikely at audiences in 1984 at Charlottesville’s Mineshaft Cellar. Evans, guitarist David Ibbeken, drummer Craig Dougald and bassist Shawn McCrystal were 18 and hungry.

“We begged the owner to give us a gig,” Evans recalls.

Their insistence paid off as the band quickly developed a following of new fans that fell under its jam band, psychedelic, Southern-rock sway. Playing a mix of originals and covers, Indecision also gigged at frat parties.

Not ready to commit completely to music, the guys went off to different Virginia colleges. But they continued playing regularly despite the commutes. Many of their fans had gone to Virginia or North Carolina colleges, and Indecision became a hot party ticket regionally. In 1989, with college finished, the band decided to hit the road on a broader scale.

“It was time to give it a push and see what we could do in a real professional manner,” Evans explains. “We went hard for four years.”

During those four years Indecision toured nationally, sharing stages with Widespread Panic, Phish, Blues Traveler, The Dave Matthews Band and the Neville Brothers. Keyboard player Doug Wannamaker and guitarist Chris White came aboard. It was still a “family operation,” but the band hit the Colorado ski circuit and colleges, bars and theaters from Dallas to New Haven, Conn. They cut three independent records and sold out the Fox Theater in Boulder, Colo., twice. Memories of those years still please Evans. “We knew we were lucky. We all knew it,” he says, as he trails off with a laugh.

But by ’93, Indecision had run its course. These days Evans and Dougald are guitar and drum teachers respectively in Charlottesville. Ibbeken is finishing law school and produces records. McCrystal lives in Atlanta and White is a carpenter in Winchester. Most play in bands, but Wannamaker is the only full-timer as a member of Everything. Even if some band contemporaries achieved more widespread success, Evans says there’s no regret.

“Guys come to us and say, ‘You could have been the next ones to make it,'” he says. “I say, ‘It worked out

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