By Kevin C. Johnson  

It has been over a decade since St. Louis rockers New World Spirits last performed – and now they’re ready to rock out again.

After performing its last concert in 1999, New World Spirits, who have a major label CD to its credit, will perform a reunion concert at the Pageant Saturday night.

New World Spirits lead singer J. Chambers says the band never had serious conversations about getting back together until now.

“Every once in a while they would come up, ‘hey do you want to get together and do a show,’ and I was probably the biggest hiccup in that because I’m living out of town,” says Chambers, a Ohio resident. “I felt like for the longest time I’d done what I wanted to do and I didn’t feel the need to go back and try to recreate that.”

“That was a perfect ten years of my life. It was beautiful, and I didn’t want to taint it,” he says.

He agreed to come back after being reminded of the great feeling he had playing with New World Spirits’ Mike Kociela (bass), Danny Drabb (guitar), and Steve Hunt (drums).

“I don’t have any brothers, so this is the closest to brothers that I come,” says Chambers. “We wanted to do this for us, and for the people who supported us all those years. And we wanted to feel what it’s like to play again.”

New World Spirits formed in 1990 at Southwest Missouri University with Chambers and Kociela, followed by Drabb, with Hunt solidifying the lineup after the guys moved to St. Louis. They self-released 1995’s “Creeperweed” album after much delay. That CD spurred interest in the Universal label, which signed the band for its 1996 major label debut “Fortune Cookie” featuring the single “Bed.”

Chambers believes “Fortune Cookie,” produced by Rick Parashar of Pearl Jam fame, could’ve been better. They wanted producer Steve Lillywhite and he was interested but unavailable, and they went with Parashar.

“We picked the wrong producer. I don’t think it was anything he did. Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’ is a great record. But we weren’t Pearl Jam, and it didn’t match what we were about,” he says. “But that’s just stuff you go through, learning experiences.”

Not long after “Fortune Cookie,” Chambers says things started getting shady at the label with shakeups at the top, and the band learned they were no longer going to be promoted.

He says the label asked them to record demos for a second CD, with no guarantees they’d actually release a second CD. New World Spirits balked, fleeing the label and releasing another CD, 1997’s “Spark,” independently. He sees “Spark” as being more representative of the band than “Fortune Cookie.”

After “Spark,” Chambers says there was interest in New World Spirits from other labels, though nothing materialized. “Once you part ways with the labels, I don’t want to say you’re blacklisted, but you seem like damaged goods. No one wanted to get us up and rolling again.”

A summer 1999 benefit show at the St. Louis Zoo would be the last. After the show, they realized they didn’t have other gigs lined up.

“There was no fight. It just kind of stopped. I don’t think any of us said this was the last show. Everyone was just tired and there were no more shows. I think it was sad,” he says. “Ten years had taken its toll, and we were ready to do something different.”

What happens with New World Spirits after the reunion show is up in the air, but they do have a new CD to promote, “TWENTYTEN,” featuring new and vintage recordings.

“This particular show is a one-time-only deal. But I don’t know that we’re ruling anything out. We’re not going to do touring again, but I wouldn’t rule out making music.”

New World Spirits, Brown Bottle Fever, 8 p.m. Saturday, the Pageant, $20. Ticketmaster or nws.com.