The last time Lunchbox played a rehearsed gig, Bill Clinton was campaigning for his second term, Mr. Goodcents was a Campustown hangout and Todd Doxon was Iowa State’s offensive threat.

Is drummer Chad Johnson worried that his band will not be remembered when it plays a reunion show this weekend?

“I’m not worried about it happening — I know it will happen,” he said between bites of a crock pizza Tuesday. “I don’t know if hardly anybody here knows us anymore — to no fault of anybody, we just haven’t played for two and half years.”

Johnson, singer Tony Bohnenkamp, guitarist Chad Gustafson and bassist Byron Stevens will gather at People’s Bar and Grill Saturday for its second reunion since the band split in spring of ’96.

Johnson and Bohnenkamp, whose departures from Ames were the main reason Lunchbox broke-up, are both back in Cyclone Country. Bohnenkamp is drumming for The Nadas and Johnson is going for the engineering degree he passed up last time around.

Gustafson has tabbed Ames his official home and is working on raising twins. Meanwhile, Stevens is finishing his final year studying bass at a graduate school in Texas.

What ignited the idea of a second reunion was a phone call from a fraternity inviting Lunchbox to return to one of the basements where the group got its start.

“It was a bunch of younger guys who had never seen us or heard us, just heard about us,” Johnson said. “We thought as long as we’re together, we should play People’s too.”

Lunchbox formed in the early ’90s when the four guys, all members of different Iowa State fraternities, started jamming together, developing a solid set of covers and originals.

“I started with the band after they got organized,” Johnson said. “But I’ve heard about these legendary parties back in the Thumper days.

“We’re going back to our roots,” he added, with an “I’ve always wanted to say that” smile.

The last time Lunchbox reunited, in March of ’97, the group was welcomed by a capacity crowd that packed People’s until nearly 2 a.m.

“It was one of the best times I ever had playing with the band,” Johnson said. “People came from all over, from a bunch of our hometowns. It will be interesting to see what happens this time.”

For the last reunion, the group rehearsed by sending tapes back and forth and spending the afternoon of the show jamming at the still vacant People’s Theater.

This time, busy schedules have forced Lunchbox to go with an even rawer approach — the “show up and play” method, as Johnson put it.

“I am slightly worried about pulling it off musically,” he said. “But the closer I get to the show, the less I am worrying about it. It’s just about having fun. Hopefully people will have fun along with us.

“That’s the best part of it. You’re having the time of your life and then you look out and see that what you’re doing is causing other people to have fun.”

Lunchbox is the composite blend of a frat band with 311, Phish and Blues Traveler. The group recorded two albums during its glory days, both of which fall under Rock at local record stores.

“When I was in the band, I wasn’t really into the bands we were covering,” Johnson said. “But when I left, I started getting into them and realized that while we were covering them, I wasn’t even close to playing them right.”

Johnson will take a second stab at them as Lunchbox has drawn up a set list that will include most of the covers the band was known for, including three older 311 tunes.

Another element the show will include is a classic Rush-style drum solo courtesy of Johnson and the war story that created it: “We were playing this huge party at Lamda Chis’ after an Iowa, Iowa State game,” Johnson explained.

“And in the middle of Byron’s solo, his wireless unit went out and they said ‘Chad, just play something.’ I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but ever since then we have worked it into the show.”

But more than the drum solo or the chance to get on the stage of his “favorite place in the world,” Johnson is looking forward to hanging out with his buddies.

“The reason the band stayed around as long as it did had just about everything to do with our friends,” Johnson said. “We were decent song writers and musicians, but our friends really supported us through those four years by going to bars and parties and having fun with us.

“That’s what it was about then and that’s what it’s going to be about Saturday night — good music, good beer and good friends.”