Joe Macrino was ushering his third-grade Quaker Hill Elementary students into the auditorium for a school assembly a few months back when a loud voice called out from the back of the hall: "Hey, ROYALE!"

Macrino had been recognized - and not because he's a teacher. As lead vocalist for the defunct Royale Brothers - one of the finest rock bands to ever pulverize a New London stage - Macrino had gone by the stage name "Joey Royale."

"I was taken aback. It caught me offguard," Macrino says. "But it wasn't just that once. It sort of started to snowball after all this time. I'd be in the grocery store or a restaurant, and someone would say something about the band. I wondered, maybe this is happening for a reason."

It's been three years since the Royale Brothers' iconic guitarist, Phil Agins, died of a drug overdose at age 25, and his passing short-circuited the band members' will to carry on. In the direct aftermath of the tragedy, surviving Royales Macrino, drummer Bobby Crash, bassist Dan Burnett and rhythm guitarist Sebastian Coppotelli instinctively and unanimously knew the band was done. Agins' talent, songwriting and leadership were artistic losses too significant to overcome and, equally important, the death of a friend and spiritual brother was too painful.

Until very recently, Macrino, who along with Agins wrote the band's songs, says his resolve against a reunion had been steadfast.

But now, in an event most thought would never happen, the Royale Brothers will gather Saturday for a performance at Stash's Café in New London. Guitarist Mike Desmond will step into the lead guitar role.

In support are two more of the area's finest bands, Gone for Good and Fatal Film, and all proceeds from the event go to the Phil Agins Berklee Scholarship Fund.

A homecoming

Eleven days before the Stash's show, Macrino, Coppotelli and Crash gather in their old rehearsal room in Crash's basement. The place exudes Eternal Rock-ness in the myriad instrument cases and empty cheap beer containers, and the overall decor and spirit are as though Keith Moon renovated a mortuary and opened a tiki bar.

"I thought, well, I'm doing (this reunion) once to get it off my chest and to contribute to the scholarship and do something for Phil's memory," Macrino says. "But I don't know. Getting together with these guys has been magical. I could maybe see doing it annually."

He takes a deep breath and adds, "We had something very special and very good. I don't care if I sound pompous when it comes to that, because we did have something. I'm very proud of this band still to this day."

Originally, the Royale Brothers started as a quasi-acoustic, experimental project after native New Londoner Macrino moved back home from Brooklyn and hooked up with Agins and Coppotelli. At once, they had a band personality and clever, hook-clustered songs, but there was also no Big Plan or concept. They were just playing music and having fun.

Enter Crash, though, with his significant reputation as a true free spirit as well as a killer drummer.

"When Bobby joined the band, it totally changed. He and Phil's drive really pushed us in a different direction and to a different level," Macrino says. "We went from being a junkyard band to a serious rock band."

"In Phil's mind, this was always supposed to be a big rock band," Coppotelli says. "Bobby enforced that. Until then, Joey and I were happy to be doing the knockaround thing and had no real interest in going anywhere."

Almost at once, the band took off. The live show was viciously instinctive and genuinely great, and the songs were tremendous - a primal hard rock outfit channeling Bo, the New York Dolls, and Jim Morrison if he'd drunk absinthe with Dr. John and dug up the grave of Marie Laveau.

The Royales blew the New London crowds away and began to hit the circuit: New York, Burlington, Boston, Portland - and paychecks and crowds kept growing. The buzz was palpable.

"It started to become tangible that this might be something that would come to fruition," Macrino says.

But it wasn't to be.

The wrong ending

Agins' death took his bandmates by surprise.

Macrino says, "We had no idea what Phil was going through at the time, which I think really made his death even more horrible. What was he doing? I was extremely angry at Phil, I won't hold back on that. I was extremely angry and disappointed."

That Agins had experienced difficulties with drugs earlier in his career, when he lived in Austin, was no secret to the Royale musicians.

"Phil was very open about his past problems with addiction," Macrino says. "But he'd gone back to school and was trying to take care of himself. We would joke with him. We'd say, 'If we ever find out you're on that stuff again, we'll kill you.' At the same time, he was was one of those guys who wanted a rock 'n' roll lifestyle. We were always trying to keep an eye on him, and he wanted us to keep an eye on him."

Macrino and Crash aren't sure what happened to Agins or how the drug overdose happened. But even before that, tensions had surfaced.

Macrino was getting married, wanted a family, and was determined to finish his master's degree and have a teaching career. At the same time, the rest of the band was gung ho and ready to sacrifice everything for the chance at stardom - and seemed to have all the tools required to give it a serious shot.

Then, Crash caught double pneumonia and was hospitalized and ultimately in bed for six weeks.

"There was a span of about two months where we basically didn't see each other," Macrino says. "I don't think Phil was habitually using again, but there was definitely a down period in terms of the band."

Crash remembers Agins calling while he was bedridden. "He said he wanted to come visit, that he needed to talk to somebody about something. I said, 'Sure, awesome, I haven't seen you in forever.' But he never came by. Maybe if I'd just gotten out of bed …"

"Yeah, but you were really sick," Macrino says. "There's a million things we could look back and say, 'I should have seen this' or 'Why is he acting this way?' The end result is, he died."

"Afterwards, I had wicked survivor's guilt, and I got really, really down," Crash says. "I was a mess. I was just sitting in my back yard, every night, looking at the stars."

"You got down, I got angry," Macrino chimes in. "I admit it. I was angry at Phil, and I was angry at me. I took the Royale Brothers for granted. We had so much fun - and I took it for granted.

"The end of the Royale Brothers is not the way I wish it ended, and I'm not just talking about Phil's death," Macrino says. "That was the worst thing that could happen, but I felt bad because the band was all about sacrificing everything and going for it. I admire it now and I admired it back then. But, to this day, I wish I could have been a little bit more supportive."

A celebration

In the spring, as the idea of a reunion began to percolate in Macrino's mind, he knew it was about more than his own closure or even that of the band's. It was also about how the New London music community would react. The Royales always proudly regarded themselves as members of an incredibly vibrant and supportive scene.

"Before I e-mailed anyone in the band, I got in touch with a handful of kids in town that were at all of our shows and were close with Phil," Macrino says. "I said, 'What do you think if we do this reunion? I need your approval. We can't replace Phil.' So I needed the support of the town, first. And I got a good response."

Macrino then called Burnett because, while the rest of the Royales had continued in various musical projects, Burnett literally hadn't picked up his bass since Agins died. Burnett said he'd give the reunion project his best shot. With that, Coppotelli and Crash were also onboard.

The final obstacle was: who could replace Agins? The answer was that no one could. However, Macrino knew Desmond because the guitarist is engaged to Macrino's sister. Macrino also knew Desmond was a terrific player and sensed he had the perfect temperament and attitude for such a delicate situation.

"Mike was key, obviously," Macrino says. "If this was going to happen, the guitarist had to be more than just someone who could play the parts. This was never going to be a Royale Brothers cover band. This has to be a celebration. We'll play the songs, of course, but there has to be something fresh and ongoing about it. He's got to honor Phil, but he's got to bring something to the table, as well."

At the first rehearsal, Desmond blew the musicians away in across-the-board fashion.

"Mike is definitely walking a tightrope, but he's pulling it off," Macrino says. "He shows respect, but he also adds a bit of his own flair that Phil would appreciate."

Macrino isn't sure what will happen after the show at Stash's. But he sees potential. He references a ton of songs he and Agins wrote that the band never had time to learn and perform.

"I'll say this. Phil always wanted us out there," Macrino says. "He wanted the music out there. He always wanted us writing songs and rehearsing and touring. That was his constant goal. That's why we have all this material that never made it out of the basement, so to speak."

He pauses a moment. "I think maybe we might be able to come up with something. I think we can try. Phil wouldn't want this music lost. That's never what this was about. It was meant to be heard."

r.koster@theday.com

If you go

What: The Royale Brothers Reunion with Fatal Film and Gone for Good, benefitting the Phil Agins Berklee Scholarship Fund.

When: 9:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Stash's Cafe, 95 Pequot Ave., New London

How much: Minimum $5 donation

For more information: (860) 443-1095