The sadies take the night

Steal the show as Greg Keelor’s backing band

TIMOTHY BROWN STAFF

Last Tuesday Andre Ethier, the Sadies and Greg Keelor played at the Pyramid. For those that were in attendance, it was a great time. For those that weren’t, well, I’m here to tell you what you missed.

Starting off the evening was Andre Ethier. For the first half of the set, if you’d closed your eyes, you might have sworn you were listening to Bob Dylan. It was a stripped-down set, with just Andre and his guitar. It was decent, and it did improve as the performance progressed; however, his Bob Dylan- “influenced” songs were just too similar to the legendary folk artist. If I wanted to listen to Bob Dylan, I’d go and put on Blonde on Blonde. Ethier is still a credible artist, he’s even part of the Deadly Snakes out of Toronto. Playing like artists who inspire you is good, but when it’s too similar, it seems that you’re either ripping that artist off, or you just lack the ability to make original music. However, as the night progressed, so did Ethier’s music once he started branching off into territory that was more his own.

Next up, was the band I came to see: the Sadies. They’re from Toronto, but one might be forgiven for mistaking them as locals, with all the shows they’ve played in Winnipeg recently. It was still a fun set, though. Using a mixture of beautiful, almost psychedelic instrumentals with oldfashioned rockabilly and country songs, the entire set was thoroughly entertaining. Probably the most appealing aspect of the Sadies’ performance was the vocals. Using very low notes, they added something extra to already fantastic songs.

The Sadies are a four-piece band, consisting of two guitar players (one of which also alternates with the fiddle), a stand-up bass player, and drummer. It’s a pretty standard set-up, but they manage to build such a large, intricate sound that it seems like there should be a lot more happening on stage than there really is. Their presence is so immense that if it

wasn’t for the suits they were wearing they might seem intimidating. The third act of the night was Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo. To make the set even better, the Sadies acted as back-up band to Mr. Keelor. Playing a lot of his new stuff, it was interesting to hear a familiar voice playing around with new sounds. Keelor and the Sadies had an excellent relationship on stage, and appeared to constantly feed off each other throughout the set. Later in the set, Keelor pulled out some Blue Rodeo songs which pleased most of the crowd. I actually found this to be the weakest part of the set. Blue Rodeo songs work when it’s Blue Rodeo that you’re watching. With Keelor doing his solo stuff, it was out of place and at times somewhat boring. That didn’t stop the set from providing entertainment for everyone there, but I would have liked to see Keelor playing second with the excellent Sadies topping off the night.