Silkworm, the Missoula, Montana, indie-rock band founded by Andy Cohen, Joel RL Phelps, and Tim Midyett in the 1980s, are reuniting. In a new interview on the Kreative Kontrol podcast with Vish Khanna, Cohen and Midyett revealed that a reconfigured lineup with Phelps, who left in 1994, will reunite to play several shows this September. They will be Silkworm’s first proper shows since breaking up in 2005, after the death of drummer Michael Dahlquist.
“There’s a very good chance that we’ll be playing a couple shows in September with Joel, and Matt [Kadane] will be playing keyboards—from Bedhead, who played in the latter day period of the ’worm,” Midyett said on the podcast. “So, it’ll kind of be an alternate history ’Worm, where Joel never left, and Matt was in the band, and we met Jeff Pananall instead of Michael [Dahlquist].” A Chicago concert is scheduled for Thursday, September 25, and a set at Memphis’ Goner Fest will take place on Saturday, September 27.
Technically, Silkworm held an impromptu reunion last year to play at a memorial gathering for the late Steve Albini, their friend and frequent collaborator, in Zion, Illinois. Cohen, Midyett, and Phelps played a few Silkworm songs with Songs: Ohia drummer Jeff Panall—who will also join the lineup for the upcoming Silkworm shows—in honor of Albini.
Silkworm released their ninth and final studio album, It’ll Be Cool, in 2004. That following year, Dahlquist and two friends—the Dials’ Douglas Meis and Returnables’ John Glick—were killed in a car crash when their vehicle was rammed from behind by a car going 90 miles per hour. Cohen and Midyett had relocated to Chicago at that point and, after grieving, started the band Bottomless Pit together. In 2013, the documentary Couldn’t You Wait? The Story of Silkworm came out featuring interviews with Albini, Stephen Malkmus, Jeff Tweedy, and more musicians.