By anyone’s yardstick (or any other measuring instrument), this weekend’s Axiom reunion at Fitzgerald’s was a rousing success. The 600-capacity club was packed both nights – I stood in line for 15 minutes waiting to get in Friday – with people old enough to remember the legendary Warehouse District rock club/art space, and people young enough to be their kids. (Many of them were, in fact, actual Axiom offspring.) Several people remarked how the weekend felt like a high-school reunion, as a makeshift movie screen on the patio played old Axiom video footage and even American Graffiti Saturday night. Subtle, right?

Although most of the bands hadn’t played together in years, most had no trouble slipping back into their old grooves – I especially enjoyed Sprawl, de Schmog, Toho Eiho and Anarchitex Friday, and Cave Reverend, Jimmy Bradshaw (complete with puking drummer) and Bayou Pigs Saturday but, as unfamiliar as I was with several of the bands, there was no real disappointments; it was easy to hear the origins of the notoriously hard-to-classify Houston sound that persists to this day. Although I cashed out early, I heard Saturday’s finale, former dead horse singer Michael Haaga joining Academy Black for several horsecore classics and B-52’s and Fear covers, went over like gangbusters. See for yourself at Press contributor Dana Donovan’s slideshow here. – Chris Gray