If Salvo was simply a Pain reunion, that’d be a blast from a past. But there’s a little more to it than that, which makes Salvo … simply a blast.

Listeners in Mobile get a chance to experience it for themselves this weekend when Salvo, the successor to distinctive Tuscaloosa-based ‘90s group Pain, plays two shows at Alchemy Tavern. There’s a precedent: Salvo played its first show in May at the Birmingham venue Saturn, and video clips show a sold-out crowd singing along enthusiastically to songs they hadn’t heard performed live in 20 years or so.

“The coolest thing about that show was, I thought it was going to be a bunch of old geezers like us,” said Mobile-area drummer George Kennedy. “It was a bunch of people who could not have been more than 2 years old when Pain broke up, singing every lyric to us. The whole experience was euphoric.”

He expects more of the same in Mobile. Plans call for 13 musicians on the stage, including Pain veteran Stuart McNair of Mobile on trumpet and accordion. Plus special guests. Plus a “visual buffet” of theatrical elements fueling a “carnival-type atmosphere.”

It’s an extraordinary return for music that was never ordinary to start with. Pain got started about 1994 in Tuscaloosa, built around the vision of singer-songwriter Dan Lord and guitarist-songwriter Adam Guthrie. The basic format was a pop-punk four-piece rock band with a three-piece horn section and keyboards, but there were always plenty of add-ons in the mix, particularly in the studio.

In “Anthem For a Middle Aged Band,” a 12-minute documentary from director Rebecca Pugh that screened at this year’s Sidewalk Film Festival, members explain that no one really knew what to make of the concept, until they figured out it wasn’t about what box Pain belonged in – it was about the sheer fun of it. “It was this kind of happy, poppy, almost ska but not really ska band,” said Kennedy. “There was nothing else like it.”

Kennedy was aware of the project early on, in part because Lord had been a high school classmate at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School. He joined in ’98, when the group was really hitting its stride amid a run that included four albums. Pain had a big following in the Southeast and another on the West Coast, where it regularly toured. Major labels were showing interest. Cartoon Network used the tune “Jabberjaw.” A spot on the Van’s Warped Tour seemed within reach.

And then, one night in 2000, Lord gathered his bandmates in the van and told them that night’s performance was going to be Pain’s last. “Dan just decided he was going to become a monk,” said Kennedy.

In the documentary, Lord and his bandmates touch on the subject gingerly. It was a moment in which one guy’s seemingly abrupt life decision upended everyone else’s expectations for their own lives, and some awkwardness remains. Time seems to have brought perspective, however: Lord had some spiritual stuff he needed to work out and there was no way around that for him, so there was no way around that for Pain.

That wasn’t the end of Lord’s creative output, however. He’s written novels, recorded film soundtracks and developed screenplays. Along the way, he accumulated a few new songs that only seemed to fit in one box. Eventually he told Guthrie he had a box full of Pain songs.

“They’re the ones who called me,” said Kennedy. They wanted to get the band back together. Two original core members opted out, which is why the new project isn’t simply called Pain.

Salvo’s rather large cast of characters is scattered, making it “pretty rough” to conduct rehearsals and ensemble recording sessions, Kennedy said. Members are based in South Carolina, Georgia, Birmingham, Spanish Fort, Mobile and New Orleans. When they do get together, Kennedy said, “We practice six to eight hours at a time. We hammer it home for hours and hours.”

The performance at Saturn may have been Salvo’s grand debut, but the doubleheader at Alchemy Tavern on Sept. 13-14 serves a higher purpose: It’s the release party for a brand-new album, “Off the Charts.” It’s a collection of songs that show that the Pain sensibility hasn’t diminished over time. “For this project, it seems like it’s expanded,” said Kennedy.

“It’s like he [Lord] can hear a minor symphony when he’s writing,” said Kennedy.

On the more punkish songs, the buzzing guitar and Lord’s bratty delivery invite comparisons to Green Day, though Salvo’s overall sonic palette is much more eclectic. The mix of horns and guitars edges close to ska territory at times, as Kennedy said; that and the persistent humor in the subject matter can call to mind the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. But there’s an incisive yet playful intelligence in the lyrics, more akin to Barenaked Ladies or They Might be Giants, that lends a gentler, more uplifting spirit to things.

The release shows will put Salvo right around the corner from where Monsoon’s, a home away from home in the old days, used to stand. Kennedy said the band’s underage following was so strong that Pain used to play alcohol-free shows early to accommodate its high school fans, then 18-and-up shows later in the evening.

Maybe the relatively young faces at Saturn shouldn’t have come as such a surprise. Kennedy said he won’t be surprised to see more than one generation turn out in Mobile.

“We have a lot of parents who turned their kids on to Pain,” he said. “We thank them for that.”

Salvo plays Sept. 13-14 at Alchemy Tavern, across from the Saenger Theatre on Joachim Street in downtown Mobile. Shows start at 9 p.m. and are 21 and up; advance tickets are $17 and can be purchased online through https://www.salvo.band. Salvo and Seasick Records will host a Birmingham listening party from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, at 5508 Crestwood Blvd.