Tempe's Gin Blossoms will pull into the South Sound Garage Wednesday, June 27 for an early '90s pop music flashback.

Formed in 1987, the roots-rocky quintet made college radio waves with the 1993 single "Hey Jealousy." Coincidentally, alt.rock was just hitting big, and the Gin Blossoms benefited from the spate of commercial alternative rock radio stations that began to pepper the U.S. (KNDD in Seattle). All good rock music stories reveal a tragedy, and for the Blossoms it came in the form of the December '93 suicide of founding guitarist-songwriter Doug Hopkins, who was fired months earlier for failing to control his alcoholism. Though disbanded in 1997, the band reformed in 2001, and has toured since 2002.  They have a new single, "Learning The Hard Way," on their Web site.

Tickets are $18 at TicketsWest beginning Monday, May 7 or $23 at the door. â€" Brad Allen