"You guys have been practising"
by soulmoxie on 2012-03-25National Arts Centre / Centre national des Arts - OttawaRating: 3 out of 5That was a comment from an audience member at the NAC after the first couple of numbers from the Sadies. For it is true that the apparent mission of the Good brothers is to blow the audience away with speed and technical proficiency. It's pretty much blazing guitars from start to finish, with nary a let-up from 100 mph. And there are times when the noise becomes almost intolerable -- at least to me. I've gotten kinda out of the habit of rock concerts for a while, and whenever I put my toe in again that seems to be the predominant impression - god, these things are loud! (After one number Dallas made a public apology to Natalie McMaster who was playing at the other end of the building: "I think she heard that one".) I saw Hugh Cornwell at another tiny venue in Ottawa a couple years ago, and it was the same thing - just noise, hugely abetted by Clem Burke on drums flailing the hell out of them, even during "Golden Brown" for God's sake. Taste, sophistication and anything related to restraint are just thrown out the window - and by artists who should know better. The Sadies have been around long enough to have heard about pacing a show, but it is seemingly a foreign concept to them.
if you don't mind the speed and volume, however, and especially if you're a guitar freak, you can't do much better than the Sadies. The songs are decent, the playing is excellent. I really love their genre, this mystical cowboy music, and I would have liked this show better if it had been a little slower once in a while. I prefer their records, because then you can actually listen to the music, instead of being run over by it.
