by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The Sadies should be considered a Canadian institution, by gummy! Whether through their cross-pollination of country, surf, psychedelia and other genres under their own moniker or their expert work backing up Neko Case, Heavy Trash (featuring Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray), the Mekons’ Jon Langford and others, the Sadies prove to be experts in any musical pool you throw them into.

Their latest accomplishment is a live record, In Concert Volume One, that celebrates every facet of their career so far. On disc one, the Sadies re-visit their catalogue with a couple of covers thrown in for good measure, but the second disc is the real tickler, boasting guests ranging from the Good Brothers, Neko Case, the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, Blue Rodeo, members of the Deadly Snakes and even surprise appearances by the Band’s Garth Hudson and Wilco’s Bob Egan, plus far too many more to list. The Mirror talked to guitarist/singer Travis Good over the phone from his home just outside of Peterborough.

Mirror: Why at this point in the Sadies’ career did you chose to do a live record?

Travis Good: We wanted to do a live record from the very beginning, because we always thought our strength was as a live band. We started working with Steve Albini because we wanted to record live in the studio to capture that type of sound. We’re generally more comfortable on stage than in the studio, and we thought it would be fun to do because we had a lot of friends that we could play with.

M: It must’ve been a nightmare trying to get all of those people under one roof over the two nights you recorded.

TG: I guess the stars were just aligned for us. The only person we couldn’t get hold of was [foul-mouthed rock ’n’ roll old-timer] Andre Williams, who finally got back to us the day of the show, which was too bad. Getting all of those people together really forced us to get the record done, because if we did it as a studio record we would still be working on that thing.

M: Despite Williams’s no-show, it still seems to be quite a feat to get everybody you have ever worked with to make it to the show.

TG: We couldn’t believe it. We honestly thought that we would put the word out and we would be lucky to get even half of them, and Andre Williams… well he’s just a guy who’s hard to find.

Full house

M: How did you prepare the show with over 25 guests, many of whom haven’t played with you guys in years?

TG: We rehearsed the night before the first show and our friends picked them up at the airport and brought them in to practise for a couple of hours. We were jamming all day long and people would just come and go. We just got really lucky that there were no scheduling problems.

M: Were there any special arrangements you had to make with the club and Steve Albini [producer] before recording?

TG: Not really. We had an extra-long soundcheck and Steve went to the venue and checked everything out. We did the whole thing on tape, so we went through $12,000 worth of tape.

M: Was there a moment in the show where you just finally stopped and thought, ‘I can’t believe this thing actually worked’?

TG: Oh yeah, it was amazing. There was also some pretty cool surprises, like Garth Hudson just showed up and we really didn’t see that coming. We had always done some Band songs in our set and we knew a couple of the Canadian Squires, so we knew it would work. Garth is a freak—he’s like a supergenius. He doesn’t need to practise at all. If he hears a verse, then he will just know how the rest of the song will go.

M: Do you think the release of the live record signals the close of chapter one in the Sadies’ career?

TG: It’s a highpoint, but it feels more like chapter 20. I feel like I can retire now (laughs). Most bands have a hard time going back and listening to their own stuff, but I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of disc two, which is all of the guests.

Boys on the side

M: You guys are almost more known as sidemen due to your work with Jon Spencer, the Unintended, Neko Case etc. How did that start?

TG: On our first tour, the Sadies were still just a hobby for all of us and we opened for Neko Case as well as played a show as her band. Somebody recommended us, so she agreed without ever hearing us, but she had done a tour with Dallas [Good, guitarist], so I guess it wasn’t that weird. We signed with Bloodshot right after that and they had signed Andre Williams and then asked us if we would back him up. Probably not a great career move on Andre’s part because originally they were going to get Jack White to get a back-up band together, but they went with us instead (laughs). I think he would’ve moved a few more records if he had stuck with the original plan.

M: When you are forced to wear different hats, like the rockabilly of Heavy Trash or the country croon of Neko Case, you take different directions. Do you get a lot of creativity out of being sidemen?

TG: Well, there are already elements in our set that are similar to the different people we’ve worked with, so I don’t find it to be that much of a left turn. The psychedelic stuff of the Unintended certainly pops up at Sadies shows. But the important thing about being a backing band is just keeping busy—that’s what really pushes you, both for financial reasons and to just keep things exciting. You don’t want to get bored doing the same set all the time. The sideman thing is definitely something that we want to keep pursuing.

M: Is there a dream list of other artists you would like to work with?

TG: I guess Neil Young would be a pretty good one. While I’m wishing, I guess I would want to do something with Deja Voodoo if we could get them to get back together. Willie Nelson would be pretty cool. Actually, we just jammed with Randy Bachman a little while ago. We just got together and did these surf instrumental songs he wrote. There is still a chance that we might do something together and we’re recording in about three months with the Heavy Trash guys and Andre Williams, so that should be pretty fun.

Blue man group

M: You must be on the road constantly.

TG: We are doing about 100 shows a year but we also keep busy with other things. We just finished a soundtrack for the Big Daddy Roth documentary that is coming out soon.

M: Okay, after touring with Andre Williams, you must have some pretty good stories.

TG: Oh God, there’s so many to choose from. I guess my favourite story is when we played this free outdoor show in Quebec City. As soon as he got on stage, he just started saying some of the craziest shit I have ever heard in my life. He stopped the show in mid-song and started saying stuff like, “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to stop the show so I can make an announcement. I would just like to say that the staff and crew for this festival… sucks! They treated me like I’m a

Nigerian person!” Everybody, including us, just sat there dumbfounded. Apparently he took issue to the crew not letting him take a sandwich from their area and directing him to the artist food instead. That was the last time I saw him. There was also this time where we were playing this festival in Europe and the audience was all families with their kids. We thought that some of his material might be a bit too blue for the kids so we mentioned that he might want to not do the questionable material, and we readied ourselves to do a PG kind of set. First song he gets on the mic and says “Okay ladies and gentlemen, this song is called ‘Pussy Stinks and So Does Marijuana’—hit it boys.” That was an important lesson because he was right, you shouldn’t change your show for anything. Andre always said from the morning when you get up you gotta “do your job” and that’s exactly what he did that day.

With Li’l Andy at Main Hall on Friday, Aug. 18, 9 p.m., $12

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