2009 will go down as the year of the reunion tour. With the recent succession of has-beens like Limp Bizkit, No Doubt, and Blink-182 taking to the stage in order to cash in on the nostalgia of aging music fans, news of defunct acts coming together for another kick at the can barely seems worthy of a few lines on Twitter. That said, there are still a few legendary outfits worthy of a plane ticket and 1000 mile journey in order to witness the second coming in person - seminal nineties garage rockers the Gories and Oblivians are two of them.
With the exception of a pair of reunion concerts in Memphis last weekend, it's been close to twenty years since Dirtbombs frontman Mick Collins has performed under the Gories banner. You'd never know it though judging from the bravado the iconic Michigan rocker exhibited on the stage of Detroit's Majestic Theatre. Playing to a sold-out room of diehard fans, Collins and his reacquainted band mates, guitarist/vocalist Dan Kroha and drummer Margaret Ann "Peggy" O'Neill, delivered an epic set of primal, bluesy garage. Cheering loudly throughout the outfit's fiery performance, the hysterical crowd could barely contain its excitement during raging classics like "Charm Bag" and "Nitroglycerine". While the Gories performance alone would have been enough to reduce even the most stoic garage rock fans to joyful tears, the fact that it was preceded by a chaotic showing from Memphis trash rock heroes, Oblivians, made the evening all the more unbelievable. On permanent hiatus themselves, with the exception of a few select shows over the last decade, the fierce lo-fi rockers seemed entirely at home playing the part of sleazy southern punkers ten years after the fact. Pounding through raw ass-shaking numbers such as "The Leather" and "Feel Real Good", Jack Oblivian and his skuzzy counterparts proved why the group has held onto its cult-status for so many years. The nasty trio was the perfect pairing for Detroit's hometown heroes and made for an event that will go down in rock'n'roll infamy, no question.
With the exception of a pair of reunion concerts in Memphis last weekend, it's been close to twenty years since Dirtbombs frontman Mick Collins has performed under the Gories banner. You'd never know it though judging from the bravado the iconic Michigan rocker exhibited on the stage of Detroit's Majestic Theatre. Playing to a sold-out room of diehard fans, Collins and his reacquainted band mates, guitarist/vocalist Dan Kroha and drummer Margaret Ann "Peggy" O'Neill, delivered an epic set of primal, bluesy garage. Cheering loudly throughout the outfit's fiery performance, the hysterical crowd could barely contain its excitement during raging classics like "Charm Bag" and "Nitroglycerine". While the Gories performance alone would have been enough to reduce even the most stoic garage rock fans to joyful tears, the fact that it was preceded by a chaotic showing from Memphis trash rock heroes, Oblivians, made the evening all the more unbelievable. On permanent hiatus themselves, with the exception of a few select shows over the last decade, the fierce lo-fi rockers seemed entirely at home playing the part of sleazy southern punkers ten years after the fact. Pounding through raw ass-shaking numbers such as "The Leather" and "Feel Real Good", Jack Oblivian and his skuzzy counterparts proved why the group has held onto its cult-status for so many years. The nasty trio was the perfect pairing for Detroit's hometown heroes and made for an event that will go down in rock'n'roll infamy, no question.
