Back From The Grave, The Gories Return!
By Kim Bellware in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 20, 2010 9:00PM
The existence of the underground garage rock trio The Gories was a rock and roll paragon: dirty, loud, fast and with an early demise. The Detroit-based band came together in the mid-'80s, building a steady cult following in the metro area before their cassette-only releases landed them a deal with Crypt Records, a Hamburg-based imprint specializing in '60s underground rock. Three official LPs on Crypt followed, and some single releases and a European tour later, the band called it quits by the early '90s.
Yet despite having been broken up for nearly a decade, The Gories influence was significant enough to pave the way for the various blues-infused garage rock imitators of the early aughts. Perhaps even more remarkable about the band's reach is that The Gories stuck almost exclusively to Detroit-area venues during their heyday, venturing out once in '92 for a European tour. The few times they played outside the Motor City, the band kept their engagements limited to Chicago and New York.
Post-breakup, members of trio were active in different bands, though all in the same vein as the one they had just dissolved: guitarist Mick Collins turned his side project, The Dirtbombs, into his primary gig, while guitarist Dan Kroha picked up the moniker "Danny Dollrod" for his stint in the Demolition Dollrods and drummer Peggy O'Neill joined the Memphis-based '68 Comeback.
Cassettes and CD-Rs of The Gories music circulated around Detroit, Chicago and New York City late into the '90s, growing wider as bands like The White Stripes and The Black Lips made bluesy garage rock for a broader audience. In 2009, the band reunited, teaming up with their Memphis counterparts, The Oblivians, for another tour through Europe (and a sold-out show in Detroit for The Gories' hometown crowd).
Friday at the Empty Bottle marks the first time that the officially reunited Gories have played Chicago in nearly two decades. Their two-night engagement will appropriately feature younger Chicago bands (who have likely taken a page or two from the scuzzy, grinding garage rockers), with White Mystery opening the first night, and Hollows and CoCoComa opening Saturday's show.
If history has been any indication, the chance to hear dirty, dragged-through-the-Delta-tinged rock offset by Collins and Kroha's surprisingly calm vocals comes about as often as a lunar eclipse. Miss this one, and you may very well find yourselves waiting another 17 or so years.
The Gories play on Friday, October 22 and Saturday, October 23 at the Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western, 10 p.m., $15, 21+