Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

RESERVE — When local band IMAGE takes the stage for their Jan. 25 performance at St. John Theatre in Reserve, it will stir fond memories of childhood days. The location holds an extra special meaning to bass player Richard Oubre, the grandson of St. John Theatre founder Louis Maurin.

All four members of the band grew up watching Saturday afternoon movies at the Theatre. For Oubre, those memories dig deeper. A painting of his father hangs in the lighting booth, and his grandfather’s picture is prominently displayed in the lobby.

“My grandfather would let us in for no charge,” Oubre recalls. “Sometimes we cut up a little bit too much, and he would have to reprimand us. He’d go around with his little flashlight and kind of put it in your face and say, ‘Keep quiet, boy.’”

It was a time when cartoons accompanied movies instead of previews. Reserve was the center of St. John the Baptist Parish, and life was good with a community pool and the Theatre within walking distance.

IMAGE band members Oubre, Ron Keller, Jeff Luminais and Kevin Aucoin honor the era they grew up in. The late 60s and early 70s marked a transformative period in the world and in their lives, and they are still playing together now, 50 years later.

Tickets are on sale for now for “IMAGE 50: Coming of Age in the River Parishes.” The show starts at 7 p.m. on Jan. 25 and costs $25 per person to attend. Pictures and video accentuate the live performance of music from the 60s and 70s, invoking an emotional reunion for those who experienced the era of political, social, technical and musical change as teenagers or young adults.

The music includes all time favorites from the Beatles, LED Zeppelin, Moody Blues and other iconic groups. Band member Ron Keller said the show is a multimedia experience.

“Not only do we do songs of that era, but we also incorporate video and lighting of the era,” Keller said. “The show is going to focus on the River Parishes and the things that were going on during those times.”

According to Keller, the show recounts the local impact of well-known events such as the wrath of Hurricane Betsy, the Vietnam War, Woodstock and the Moon landing.

Oubre said the show will be more than just a concert.

“It’s more like a story with music,” Oubre said. “We’re all from Reserve. We grew up here, and we were right there in the middle of town doing bonfires like everyone was doing. We’re trying to chronicle that and do it musically.”

IMAGE’s roots trace back to the 1960s, when the band members were in the throes of early adolescence. The boys met up at Keller’s house and started putting a band together from scratch.

“I was going to play guitar, but I’d never played guitar before,” Oubre said. “I bought a little acoustic guitar from SEARS and started trying to learn how to play. Jeffrey was playing on shoeboxes and coat hangers for drums. It started out very, very makeshift.”

It took a while for the band to start booking actual gigs. As the members’ musical talent grew, so did the reach of their group. It was initially known as The Outer Limits, named after the 1963 television series with a catchy title sequence. The band took over different names over time, until it eventually became known as The Last Image, and then just IMAGE.

The highlight of decade came, when the boys were invited to perform on nationally televised rock-n-roll variety show “Happening ‘68.” The guys, still in high school at the time, traveled to California and spent a couple of days on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood at the luxurious Hyatt Hotel.

It was an experience the band members would never forget, according to Keller.

“We reached some success, eventually made a record and went to California on national TV, which was quite an accomplishment for four teenagers from Reserve,” he said.

Oubre remembers how plans changed before the big performance.

“We were going to play the song ‘Gloria’ by Shadows of the Night, but the sensors didn’t like the lyrics,” Oubre said. “We ended up playing a song by the Strawberry Alarm Clock, ‘Incense and Peppermints.’ We still play that song in our show to this day.”

The band started breaking up in the mid 1970s as core members finished school and moved away. IMAGE remained defunct for more than 30 years, until Oubre’s father passed away in 2008. Plans to get the band back together commenced in 2009, and IMAGE performed its reunion show to a sold out audience of more than 600 people at San Francisco Plantation in 2011.

The experience has come full circle, band members said.

“What makes us unique is we are a group of guys that got together literally from scratch,” Keller said. “The band ran its course, but now, we are back together. It’s the exact same chemistry. You don’t usually get to play music with the same guys you started out with 50 years ago.”

Tickets for the show are available now at stjohntheatre.com/box-office.