Concert review:  The Cynics at the Double Door, Chicago.

There's always a fear when seeing a favorite band again after a long break that they will no longer live up to your expectations.  What if in that interval they've started to suck.  I was relieved to discover that the Cynics have not started to suck. It was debatable which wail was more impressive, Michael Kastelic 's vocals or Gregg Kostelich's fuzz-covered guitar chords. Michael banged his tambourine with such ferocity that I wondered if he ends up covered in self-inflicted bruises.  He punctuated their straight-up garage rock with lots of Iggy wiggles and bug-eyed craziness.  There was just purity to it, the complete distillation of rock.  I was in heaven.