Man, you should of heard those Sadies go, go, go. Water Street Music
Hall (the club side) was packed with the wintery wounded and weary to hear
these tenacious Toronto roots rockers lay it down with a matchless,
venomous attack. I’ve seen The Sadies at least
a half dozen times and have to say this show was the best, taking fistfuls of
psychedelic garage, honky-tonk, surf, and rock ‘n’ roll and dishing it out with
a big — but not brutal — volume. The Good Brothers done good. Looking sharp in their Nudie suits, the band took the
stage with little fanfare; just plugged in and peeled out. This is a band’s
band.
Show openers, The Barry Brothers, rocked it southern-style
despite its nearby roots. The band burned hot, Allman Brothers style, and gave
it a rock ‘n’ roll giddy-up which had the-ever-swelling crowd hollering for
more. It was big and swingin’.
After The Sadies wrapped, I slipped
and slid like a hockey puck over to Skylark Lounge to witness the next
generation of rockers run with the torch. The Absolutes — trimmed down
to guitar, keyboard, and drums, straight-up put my head in a bag with its
blues-based, 1960’s tinged rock ‘n’ roll. It’s as if the band pulled out a rock
licks thesaurus that rivaled Ten Years After’s closing set at Woodstock.
Mostly original, The Absolutes got the joint jumpin’
in a slow-rolling boil with a killer take on some Ray Charles.
By the time the band relinquished the stage to St.
Phillip’s Escalator, it was clear that the night time is in fact the right
time to be with the one you love. SPE swirled and soared hot and heavy, like a
prom date, tearing through a set that highlighted material off its new “Elevation” EP
as well as earlier stuff and a nod to the late Johnny Winter.
One more automotive slap-shot and we found ourselves at
The
Bug Jar, eager to dig Eddie Nebula’s new joint, Dark Nemesis. We got
there just in time to hear how great the set — that we just missed — was. I
have to catch the band soon. Dig my review of Dark Nemesis’ new CD in the meanby.
This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2015.
