Gig: Jon Langford & His Sadies

Jon Langford & His Sadies / Jon Langford & The Burlington Welsh Male Choir / The Sadies

The Horseshoe. Friday, February 27, 2009.

After a very pleasant Friday night visit to the ROM (the newly-reopened minerals exhibit is well done, and worth a look) headed down to the 'Shoe and wound my way in through the crowd of choirists.

There was a whiff of familiarity to the night, as it felt very much a sequel to the Waco Brothers show of December '07, so this time I wasn't confused by the fact that half of the pre-show crowd appeared to be grey-haired gentlemen in pressed white shirts and ties. Grabbed a rum and coke and found a chunk of wall to lean against. Had good timing, as it wasn't too long before the throng began to assemble on stage, as the proceedings were overseen by Jeff Cohen in fanboy-emcee mode.¹

On the previous visit, Jon Langford had done his tunes with the choir backed by the Waco Brothers' rhythm section. No slight to them (especially the inestimable Steve Goulding), but there was an upgrade tonight with The Sadies (all but invisible behind the mob) serving as the backing band. And "choir" here is to be taken literally – this is a full-bore, professional-quality ensemble, twenty-plus deep in number – not a "choir" in the indie-rock sense (which usually implies a handful of people crowded around a microphone, shouting in unison). All the same, although one can tell they are well-rehearsed and serious about their craft, they still feel like a bunch of lads at the local, joshing with each other and prepared to have a fun time. So it's a slightly unusual sort of thing to see at the 'Shoe.

As before, the set was drawn primarily from the excellent Skull Orchard alb, a logical jumping-off point as many of the songs celebrate Langford's memories of Wales. It might have been the pleasant buzz from the drink (which'd been quickly joined by a second, both settling in on an empty stomach) but this set was quite excellent, a step up even from their previous outing on the same stage. The peak came with "Tom Jones Levitation", a call for the singer to come home to claim his rightful place as the President of an independent Wales, followed up by a raucous cover of "Delilah". The choir largely maintained the energy with a couple songs on their own, as the Sadies departed the stage, and Langford moved to the side, still singing along in Welsh.

Then a break and a slight shifting of the crowd, as some of the friends and families of the choir members slipped away. Even still, it was generally an older crowd – very few under 25's in attendance. And not packed, but a nice crowd as The Sadies came on. Although the show's listing had said "Langford + Sadies 2 sets" it turned out, in fact, to be a straight-up Sadies set in between Langford's appearances. This is not a complaint.

It's hard to overstate how damn good The Sadies are. Seeing them semi-regularly, it's a little easy to take them for granted, but their expert proficiency is always striking. They played a full set (though that makes it compact compared to some of the marathons they have played on that same stage) that basically covered many of the "hits" and highlights of the catalogue, all enthusiastically received.

Seeing as it was a bloody cold night out, I had been hopeful of getting out of there in time to catch the subway; given that The Sadies returned to the stage with Langford for the headlining set at 12:45, I started to think was unlikely. In fact, the crowd had thinned out a bit since the end of The Sadies' set, and some more trickled away as the hour grew later. Their loss, as this was surely something worth staying for. Anchored, again, around one album, this set drew heavily from '03's collaborative The Mayors of the Moon, although as the night went on, a few covers began to creep in. Most excitingly, there were a pair of Mekons tunes, a cracking version of "Memphis, Egypt" plus a knockout take on "Where Were You?". Nearly as good was Dolly Parton's "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You". Langford and The Sadies were totally simpatico and filled with energy throughout. Honky-tonk rock'n'roll power.

All together, a rather excellent night, despite the fact that someone spilled beer on my jacket sleeve, and I ended up with a frigid 20-minute wait for the Dufferin night bus to get home. A small price to pay.

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¹ It's nice to think that some of what happens at the 'Shoe happens from a labour of love, not just plunking bands on stage as a means to separate patrons from their dough. Back at that Waco Brothers' gig, part of the Horseshoe's 60th birthday celebrations, Cohen and his coterie were at the front of the crowd, ripping it up throughout the night as pitcher after pitcher of tequila-based cocktails were ferried to them.