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The Gories

"Witty stage banter has never been our strong point," stalled Gories guitarist/vocalist Mick Collins during the first of several technical difficulties. "But then neither was our musicianship." The influential mid-1980s garage rock trio was once minimalist in every regard – negligible musical experience, no bassist or kick drum, and few career expectations. In the band's first Austin appearance, the Gories stretched those limitations to an absolute maximum, beginning with introductory theme song "Hey Hey We're the Gories," behind primordial timekeeper Peggy O'Neill, who served as Moe Tucker to her own Motor City Velvet Underground. Co-captain Dan Kroha hasn't aged a wink since the group called it quits in 1993, and alongside Collins, the dual guitarists took turns paying tribute to their poles of inspiration: the raw, teenage lust of 1960s bawlers (the Keggs' Back From the Grave: Part 2 classic "To Find Out") and the terse shuffles of the Chess Records canon (John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen'"). When the two met in the middle, as in the feedback-drenched Suicide ode "Ghostrider" and closing detonation "Nitroglycerine," the Gories jived and wailed as hard as anything in the post-millennium blues resurgence that followed in their wake. "How many of you people even know who we are?" Collins asked the crowd toward the end. The answer: Enough to warrant a return visit.