Quality over quantity during NXNE's Friday

My baseball team lost 5-4 and the game meant that I couldn't attend any North By Northeast shows until midnight on Friday, but quality instead of quantity was the order of the night and made the sting of the loss a little easier to take.

I've seen both Andre Williams and The Sadies in a variety of incarnations over the years, but the two of them together is a deadly combination. The 75-year-old singer was pimped out in a red satin suit and red fedora and added new elements to his look with earrings and a beard. He may have looked like an aging ladykiller, but he was behaving like a person a quarter of his age with his come-ons to the young women in the audience.

Andre Williams with The Sadies

Things got hot right off the bat with "Agile, Mobile, Hostile" and then his 50-year-old hit, "Shake a Tail Feather," with The Sadies' Dallas and Travis Good providing a wall of guitar in accompaniment. Upright bassist Sean Dean and drummer Mike Belitsky kept a solid rhythm and Williams' manager added to the ensemble by playing keyboards. Perhaps he felt he had to keep a close eye on his artist, who has a long history of substance abuse that was documented in the 2007 film "Agile Mobile Hostile: A Year with Andre Williams."

Things continued with selections including "I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair of Pajamas" and a slow doo-wop version of Williams' 1957 hit "Bacon Fat" before he left the stage to "take a pee." The Sadies filled in ably by performing "Pussy Stank" on their own, while accompanied by some sultry burlesque dancing by Caitlin Veitch.

Williams returned wearing a white jacket and fedora and Travis picked up his violin for "She's a Bag of Potato Chips" from 1999's Red Dirt. That was Williams and The Sadies' first album together, and they finally followed it up this year with Night & Day. "Jailbait," another vintage favourite, was followed by "Bad Motherfucker" -- and you have to know that the man was, and still might be, what the title proclaims. Williams and Veitch left the stage, leaving The Sadies to take the song to its conclusion.

You can see a video of Williams and The Sadies performing "I Can Tell" in this video recorded at the show by Matzoh Ball.

Greg Cartwright (The Compulsive Gamblers, The Oblivians) had been quietly sitting backstage during the set, but there was nothing reserved when he took the stage with his garage punk combo Reigning Sound at 1:15 a.m. and opened with "Your Love Is A Fine Thing."

Reigning Sound

The club was packed, and had a long lineup outside, and Cartwright rewarded fans with a blazing hour-long set of soulful rock-and-roll that included "Everything I Do Is Wrong," "Debris," "If You Can't Give Me Everything," "Bad Man," "Time Bomb High School," "I Don't Care If You Ever Come Back Now," "Funny Thing," "If I Can't Come Back," The Compulsive Gamblers' "Stop and Think it Over" (which you can see in this video by Matzoh Ball), a great cover of "Stormy Weather" and more.

I'd seen The Deadly Snakes' Max Danger (who'd worked with Cartwright in the past) backstage, but he was soon on it and urging everyone to demand an encore. It came with a one-two punch beginning with "Drowning."

Cartwright was in fine voice throughout the performance and his band members became a united force to be reckoned with and exemplified what good old rock-and-roll is all about.

No Sinner

Vancouver's No Sinner had the difficult task of following Reigning Sound at 2:30 a.m. Singer Colleen Rennison seemed to be going for a sexy white trash look, and her powerful blues-rock voice combined with the competent musicianship accompanying her gave the performance a Janis Joplin  vibe. The group still needs more in the way of songs, but there's some potential there.

Andre Williams — That's All I Need

Now well into his seventies, and with lots of hard living packed into most of those years, Williams is finally showing signs of slowing down in his performances and on this latest Bloodshot Records release.

The Black Godfather talks more than sings on these 10 tracks, which are less raunchy than we've come to expect (even 2008's Can You Deal With It? was full of the sexual swagger that Williams has built much of his reputation on) and are largely blues-based, with touches of psychedelic soul and rock-and-roll thrown in.

Williams seems to be looking back at his life and taking stock in quite a few of these cuts, including the title track, "My Time Will Come" and "There Ain't No Such Thing As Good Dope." Coming from a guy whose drug addiction was so serious that he was homeless for a while, that last title means something.

Just as noteworthy as Williams' contributions to these 10 self-penned tunes are those of his backing band, which includes Funk Brothers guitarist Dennis Coffey, members of the Dirtbombs, the Witches, the Sights and Electric Six, as well as producer/guitarist/arranger Matthew Smith (Outrageous Cherry, Volebeats). The guitar work is especially impressive on "Just Call Me" and "Tricks."

I often wondered if Williams could grow old gracefully, but he seems to be doing just that on That's All I Need.

Andre Williams and The Sadies
My Thursday night volleyball games kept me away from Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern until 11 p.m., so I unfortunately missed local blues/roots/rock-and-roll combo Catl (who I quite like and last saw at the Halloween party at Mitzi's Sister a few weeks ago) and Montreal rockabilly artist Bloodshot Bill (who I've never witnessed in person, but have liked what I've heard on radio and seen on television), who I'll try to catch opening for King Khan & BBQ at Lee's Palace on Dec. 4.
But my arrival coincided with the start of a short nine-song set by The Sadies, which included "Why Be So Curious (Part 3)," "Leave Me Alone," "Stay A Little Longer," "Tiger Tiger" and a couple of instrumentals. The quartet was sharp, as always, and got the good-sized crowd pumped up for its next role as Andre Williams' backing band.
"Mr. Rhythm" (who was apparently given that name by the late, great Redd Foxx) took the stage along with two local go-go dancers (who I won't name, just in case their employers happen to see this and didn't know they were moonlighting). Andre was decked out in a red zoot suit with matching hat, had earrings on both sides of his head, and looked every part the pimp.
I've seen Andre at least half-a-dozen times, but it's been a few years since he's been in Toronto. He didn't look as good as he has in the past when I saw him at the Continental Club in Austin during the South By Southwest Music Festival in March, so I was a bit wary going in to this performance. He turned 73 earlier this month and has lived a hard life that's included lots of booze and drugs and periods of homelessness, but he seemed to be rejuvenated somewhat for this show. Performing in front of The Sadies can do that to people.
Andre opened with  "Hallelujah" and then moved into "She's A Bag Of Potato Chips," which he recorded with The Sadies on the 1999 country-influenced  Red Dirt album. He showed a few dance moves during "Agile, Mobile & Hostile" and then sang about one of his many fantasies with "I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair Of Pajamas." The Sadies provided lots of raunch and crunch in support, and Dallas Good even took an impressive turn at the organ during "Pajamas."
Things slowed down for another Red Dirt track, "I Can Tell," after which Andre said, "I'd like to take a short break and turn you over to some bad motherfuckers."
Andre stood behind Dallas and caught his second wind as The Sadies ripped through an uplifting version of "Higher Power."
The dancers returned once Andre reclaimed centre stage to scan the crowd for "some good pussy," which was an obvious introduction for "Pussy Stank."
Andre then reached back about 50 years into his catalogue for two early hits. First came a bluesy doo-wop version of "Bacon Fat," followed by the still lascivious "Jail Bait."
Andre made a dedication to all the "hillbillies in the house," and explained, "I used to pick cotton and screw myself because there was no girls" when he was growing up as a "blackbilly" in Alabama.
The set ended with what's probably Andre's best-known song, the ever-awesome "Shake A Tail Feather," which had the go-go girls shaking theirs.
Andre returned to the stage wearing a Christmas sweater for a short two-song encore that concluded with a reprise of "Hallelujah." 
The set was relatively short and I really missed "Let Me Put It In," which used to be a highlight of past shows and seemed to get a lot of ladies excited, but any time spent with Andre is a good time.
Andre isn't  quite what he used to be as a performer, but I'm glad that he may be able to prolong his career a bit and make some more money now that he's cleaned up — even though from a totally selfish perspective, I miss some of the old post-show, backstage debauchery that used to take place (that I would just observe, of course, since I would never dream of partaking in any illicit activities).
Here are some of my shots from the show: