For a litany of ’90s bands, reunions are lately all the rage. Really, who can blame them? Said bands no longer have to worry about the stigma of “selling out” and can instead enjoy cashing in. But aside from that reason, the newly reunited Archers Of Loaf can’t be blamed for their well deserved 2011 victory lap. After a career beset by label problems, inflated expectations and under-performing album sales, the band broke up after 1998’s underrated White Trash Heroes. And while most reunited bands enjoy a loftier status after the years have fed into their legacy (see: The Pixies, Pavement), the Archers rolled into the Black Cat on Friday more or less just happy to be there.

Make no mistake, the sold out and very vocal crowd on hand was just as happy to be there. After all, none of us had heard “Lowest Part Is Free” live for going on 13 years (despite me yelling out for it at every Crooked Fingers show I have ever attended). One guy even brought his Vee Vee baseball pennant, a promotional item given out with the band’s 1995 sophomore album.

The band, tight and dare I say a bit over-rehearsed, tore through a career spanning set that touched the “hits” like “Web In Front” and “Harnessed In Slums”, as well as some deep cuts like “Worst Defense” and the instrumental “Smokin’ Pot In The Hot City”. The highlight though, was the encore, in which the band performed their masterpiece 1994 EP “Vs. The Greatest Of All Time” in its entirety. Honestly, the show itself was damn near perfect.