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The lasting images from the peak of Guns N’ Roses’ reign are all epic: The massive stadium crowds, the white leather suits, the entirety of the “November Rain” video.

It’s difficult to consider them as a club band, and yet just like all big bands before them, they had to start somewhere.

In an effort to remind the world that Axl & Co. used to be, uh, smaller, Guns N’ Roses announced that they will play a series of shows at small venues in February. The centerpiece of the run will be a stop at New York’s Webster Hall, which only holds about 1,200 people for rock shows and was the site of a notorious GNR show taped by MTV in 1988.

Back then, the club was called the Ritz, which is what it will be re-christened when Axl and his band of merry men take the stage on Wednesday, Feb. 15.

The rest of the run shakes out like this: Two other New York shows (Roseland Ballroom on Feb. 10 and Terminal 5 on Feb. 12), then shows at the House of Blues in Chicago (Feb. 19), the Fillmore in Silver Spring, Md. (Feb. 23), and the House of Blues in Atlantic City (February 24). Presale tickets go live on Tuesday, Jan. 31, for the New York shows, with the rest of the lot on sale this Wednesday, February 1.

Axl is hardly the first rock giant to book a back-to-the-start run in smaller venues:

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