The members of God Street Wine [ tickets ] will come together July 9-10 for two shows benefiting the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The concerts at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City will be the first live performances by the band in nearly a decade, according to a press release.

The band decided to reunite after their longtime stage manager Michael Weiss, who was diagnosed in 2004 with MS, encouraged them to support his MS-related charity work.

The announcement of the reunion coincided with MS Awareness Week (3/8-14) in the US; tickets for the two benefits go on sale Friday (3/12).

God Street Wine split up in 1999 after playing a three-night farewell run at the Wetlands Preserve in New York. Selected performances from those final shows were compiled and released as part of the live album "Good To the Last Drop," which surfaced in 2000. The original five members of the band reunited in September 2001 to mark the closure of the Wetlands.