Photo by @itslaurameek
For many bands, a reunion show is simply an opportunity to revisit old songs and reconnect with longtime fans. For Colour Revolt, however, their return to Proud Larry’s in Oxford on Friday, August 21 carries considerably more weight than nostalgia alone.
When the Mississippi indie rock band steps onto the Proud Larry’s stage for the first time in more than a decade, they’ll be returning to one of the venues that helped define their early years while reopening a creative partnership some believed had reached its final chapter.
“Our last Colour Revolt show was in 2014,” guitarist and vocalist Sean Kirkpatrick recalled. At the time, the band believed it was done for good. The members sold the touring van, dissolved the band’s LLC, and gradually settled into ordinary adult life.
Like many musicians, practical realities eventually outweighed the dream. Careers and families replaced months spent traveling from city to city. Kirkpatrick pursued solo music for several years and took an office job, while fellow founding member Jesse Coppenbarger built a life in Missouri, where he now works as a social worker with veterans.
Yet despite the long silence, the friendships remained.
The spark that reignited Colour Revolt didn’t come from a record executive or promoter. Instead, it began quietly while Coppenbarger traveled back to Mississippi to record his forthcoming solo album at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, under his side-project-name El Obo, which leans towards experimental folk and dream-pop.
As the two longtime collaborators reconnected, conversation naturally drifted toward the possibility of making music as Colour Revolt again. Rather than immediately focusing on writing another record, they decided the first step should be playing together.
Kirkpatrick believed the chemistry that had always defined the band could only be rediscovered onstage.
“Let’s play these songs,” he remembered thinking. “Let’s do that before we work on anything for the future.”
With encouragement from longtime friend Chaney Nichols of the Esperanza Plantation record label, the group settled on a pair of reunion performances in Mississippi—one in Jackson at Duling Hall and one in Oxford—bringing the story back to where so much of it began.
Oxford’s Lasting Influence
No place is woven into Colour Revolt’s history quite like Oxford.
Long before national tours and critical acclaim, the members were Ole Miss students learning their craft while playing local venues around town.
Proud Larry’s quickly became one of those musical homes.
“We played there a great deal over the first generation of our band,” Kirkpatrick said, noting that while the now-closed Two Stick served as one of their earliest Oxford stages, Proud Larry’s was equally important.
Even after Colour Revolt disbanded, Oxford never completely disappeared from Kirkpatrick’s life. Working on the Square meant regular lunches at Proud Larry’s, where owner Scott Caradine would often ask the same question.
“When’s Colour Revolt getting back together?”
For years Kirkpatrick had no solid answer. There were no discussions of reuniting, and a return seemed increasingly unlikely.
Still, subtle talk with Caradine ultimately helped make Proud Larry’s the obvious choice once reunion plans became reality. Kirkpatrick said he couldn’t imagine bringing Colour Revolt back without honoring one of the band’s strongest supporters.
“I didn’t want to disappoint Scott,” he said. “If Colour Revolt ever gets back together, we’ll play a show there.”
Coppenbarger carries equally vivid memories of Oxford.
Today he lives in northern Missouri, making every trip back south feel like a return home. Beyond the music itself, he looks forward to hearing familiar Mississippi voices, walking around the Square, reconnecting with friends and, perhaps most importantly, enjoying another one of Proud Larry’s more decadent and iconic hand-tossed pizza pies, the Fat Larry.
While the savory Fat Larry is certainly something to look forward to, he also remembers the intimacy of the room, where audiences stand only a few feet away from the stage, creating an energy that larger venues can’t duplicate.
He expects the upcoming performance to be emotional—not only because of the years that passed, but because so many people have shared this journey with the band.
“It’s been a long time,” Coppenbarger reflected, anticipating an audience filled with longtime friends and fans whose lives have unfolded alongside the music.
Oxford also represents another pivotal chapter in Colour Revolt’s history.
Their celebrated album Plunder, Beg and Curse was recorded at the famous Sweet Tea Recording Studio, in collaboration with local producer/engineer Clay Jones and producer/studio owner Dennis Herring. The leadoff track “Naked & Red” not only serves as a dramatic opener to the album, but still stands as one of the group’s most recognized songs.
But the Sweet Tea sessions almost never happened.
Earlier, while traveling to South by Southwest in Texas, the band’s van was robbed leaving them without instruments, laptops, schoolbooks, and pretty much everything they owned.
Support poured in from fellow musicians, equipment manufacturers, and fans alike, whose donations allowed the band not only to replace the gear but also finance the studio time that would spawn one of the defining records of their career.
Looking back, Coppenbarger remembers exhausting overnight recording sessions squeezed between college classes and early morning work schedules, mysterious technical problems, and the guidance of Jones and Herring, who helped shape what he still considers the band’s strongest sounding record.
Writing the Next Chapter
Although reunion concerts may be the public face of Colour Revolt’s return, both Kirkpatrick and Coppenbarger describe something deeper happening behind the scenes.
The true motivation isn’t simply revisiting the past, but rediscovering the creative partnership that originally made the band unique.
While recording his solo album, Coppenbarger realized how much he missed the intuitive musical dialogue he always shared with Kirkpatrick. For years the two had instinctively completed each other’s musical ideas, often anticipating where songs were headed before either had said a word.
Recording without that relationship reminded him just how unusual it had been, and that realization eventually led to a simple question.
Would Sean be interested in making music together again?
The answer came quickly. According to Coppenbarger, that conversation became the true beginning of Colour Revolt’s second chapter. The prospect of live shows became the vehicle that brought everyone back into the same room, creating opportunities to reconnect and begin imagining performing more music together.
The reunion also arrives after another difficult season.
Coppenbarger spoke candidly about the loss of former bassist Luke White, whose death prompted deeper reflection about mortality and unfinished stories.
Rather than allowing grief to become another ending, the remaining members chose to gather once more.
He also reflected on how loss has repeatedly shaped Colour Revolt’s history, recalling how the death of Sean Kirkpatrick’s brother Ryan years earlier strengthened the friendships that ultimately formed the band itself. Those shared experiences have continually pushed the musicians toward creativity instead of isolation.
There is another layer to that philosophy.
Coppenbarger explained that the name “Colour Revolt” originated from Edwin Abbott’s classic novella Flatland, whose themes suggest that art has the power to erase divisions and remind people of their common humanity.
More than twenty years after the band’s formation, he believes that message remains just as meaningful today.
As Colour Revolt prepares to return to Proud Larry’s for a sold out show, they expect it to be a gathering of old friends and longtime supporters rediscovering the chemistry right alongside the band.
But what awaits inside Proud Larry’s won’t simply be a reunion concert, or one of Mississippi’s most beloved indie bands revisiting its past—but instead, one just beginning to write its next chapter.
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