I really dug their previous outing, Favourite Colours, so I was pretty excited to hear that they had a live album in the works. Then one fine day I went out to my mailbox and, lo and behold, there was In Concert, Vol. 1 waiting for me. And look at that – they’re bringing back the double-live album. That’s something of a dubious prospect – the double live was often a ploy used by worn-out, bloated arena-rock bands to pad the catalog a little without coming up with any new material – but if anyone could pull it off, it’s probably The Sadies.

The album was compiled from two shows recorded (by Steve Albini) this February in Toronto. It’s a sort-of career-spanning retrospective thing with a lot of (relatively) well-known guests, so a lot of people are comparing to The Band’s The Last Waltz. The presence of Garth Hudson just feeds that sort of thing. The crucial difference here is that The Sadies aren’t hanging it up just yet – nor should they. (Also, there’s no Neil Young with a coke booger the size of Alberta.) But really, to me it just sounds like a bunch of really talented friends and relatives having a hell of a roots-rock party. Wheee!

I think Disc Two holds up a little better then Disc One does, even if the second disc is weighted down by the inexplicable presence of eternal dilettante Jon Spencer opening the side. Once you skip over his three tracks (two at the beginning of the disc, one toward the end), it’s mostly honey. Disc One is largely given over to Sadies originals, and while the original recordings are top notch, here quite a few of them come off a little flat. Things don’t really hit their stride until the bluegrass number “Uncle Larry’s Breakdown”; after that, either everybody’s warmed or the booze has kicked in fully. Or both. They’re not really mutually exclusive states, in my experience. Disc Two is where most of the marquee-type names come in. Not that The Sadies need to be propped up by outsiders. Far from it. They just seem to have loosened up a bit more by then.

At any rate, the proceedings sorta take off about halfway through Disc One. High points would include: the version of “Lonely Guy” featuring what I think is Garth Hudson – I know he’s on here somewhere, but my review copy doesn’t break things down as much as might be helpful (ahem, Yep Roc); the duet between the always sublime Kelly Hogan and one of the Good brothers (prolly Dallas, but I can’t be sure) on “1,000,002 Songs”; all the Jon Langford numbers (“Memphis, Egypt” kicks about seven different kinds of ass), and the Neko Case bits, too (her duet on “Evangeline”, especially); the cover of Pink Floyd’s “Lucifer Sam”… aw fuck it, 90% of it’s good, and that’s a really tough ratio to beat these days.

The boys in The Sadies know what they’re up to. They’re not moonlighting in the various genres they move through. They’ve got a real feel for the country numbers they do, but they’re just as at home with the more psychedelic songs. To my ears, that’s a pairing that’s been waiting to happen since the late, lamented Gram first posited the idea of Cosmic American music way back… uh, whenever that was in the sixties.

If that concept doesn’t get your frontal lobe lubed, this may not be the fun you seek. If, however, such a marriage sounds even remotely intriguing, you might want to pick up a copy of In Concert, Vol. 1 when it drops this August. As a double-disc set you’ll probably pay a little more, but the payoff inside makes it all worthwhile.

The Sadies’ In Concert, Vol. 1 will be released by Yep Roc Records on 8/8/06.