POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Rockabilly Legends in Second Coming

Quick: Name a genuinely great junior-high-age rock ‘n’ roll act. Stymied? Well, there was at least one--the Collins Kids, a sibling duo that cut some of the most exciting rockabilly ever, hitting their peak when Lorrie was a 15-year-old sex symbol and Larry a blazing guitar hero all of 13. Their most thrilling recordings from the late ‘50s combine the reckless abandon of wild teen-hood with the playful guilelessness of real youth.

By one accounting, the Collins Kids hadn’t played an L.A. show since 1959, and there was no reason to reckon the cult amassed around their legend would ever get to see them. So the second coming of Larry and Lorrie on Saturday packed the Palomino with the rockabilly worshipful, most young enough to be the Kids’ kids.

There were some minor revelations: Lorrie (one of Ricky Nelson’s first loves) has gone blond and, yes, Larry’s great little ravin’-pipsqueak voice did change. But whatever he lost in falsetto he’s made up for in further phenomenal guitar prowess, doing breakneck runs on his double-neck that burned a jet trail across Lankershim.

Lorrie strummed along with a big, contagious, grin when not reviving the likes of “Rock Boppin’ Baby” with more well-preserved winsomeness and guts than you had any right to expect after 35 years of wondering whatever-happened-to. Somehow their excellent backing band, the Dave & Deke Combo, kept up.