Reunion performance at Touch and Go festival

On September 9, 2006, Albini and Durango reunited with original bassist Jeff Pezzati for a Big Black reunion performance at Touch and Go’s 25th Anniversary festival. Albini’s touring schedule with Shellac did not allow time for the band to rehearse a full set, so they instead played a short set of four songs: “Cables”, “Dead Billy”, “Pigeon Kill”, and “Racer-X”. Albini explained that the performance was “not about Big Black wanting to get back together or even an audience wanting to see Big Black, it’s that … to not honor Touch and Go would be an insult by way of damning with faint praise”, describing the label as “[not] just a benchmark for how a record label should behave, but how people should behave.” During the performance he stated that “You can tell [this is] not something we had a burning desire to do, but we did it because we love Touch and Go [and] we love Corey Rusk […] When history talks about rock music it has a tendency to skip from the Sex Pistols to Nirvana, [but] something started in the 1980s and you’re seeing the evidence of it all around you”, remarking that the label was “the best thing to happen to music in my lifetime, and we did this to say thanks”. The performance prompted offers from promoters for further reunion shows, but Albini stated flatly “that is definitely not going to happen.”