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Your favourite wedding band

That’s ‘favourite’ not favorite

Who: The Sadies

Where: Garibaldi Lift Co. (GLC)

When: Tuesday, Nov. 23

Tickets: $12

I have to concede a certain level of geekiness to admit that I’ve enjoyed the odd game of one-upping intimate and/or obscure music shows in my time. The stage is usually set by a few too many pitchers of beer in the type of pub where no one dances. Talk turns to shows past. Someone mentions they’ve seen Damien Jurado on a houseboat in Seattle or Coolio in a dilapidated stadium in Romania and it’s on.

My own trump card is a doozy. While travelling in Austria in the early 1990s I caught Debbie Gibson and The Pointer Sisters opening for David Hasselhoff at the opening gala for the Special Olympics. The Austrians/Germans, particularly the special ones, really do love him over there – tight black pants and pirate shirts notwithstanding. Hasselhoff had a radio hit at the time on the ORF public broadcasting network called Everybody Sunshine that would stay in your head for days.

Argh! I thought I’d purged it from my brain forever. Damn you Hasselhoff!

Regarding the concert as a whole, the Pointer Sisters kicked his pirate shirted ass. Those broads’ Neutron Dance burned as hard as it ever did in the ’80s.

Sadly, the Debster isn’t even worth mentioning. Time had not been kind to yester-decade’s perky pop-tart. Pay attention Britney.

Where am I going with this?

Patience, grasshopper. The one-upping gig thing. Remember?

Follow me from rural Austria back to Whistler.

In April 2003 local fans of Canadian alt-country garage band The Sadies (and there are a lot of them), were pleased as punch that the Toronto quartet went the extra mile up the Sea to Sky to play the GLC.

I was not at the show. Advantage anyone who was.

But here’s my trump card: a few months later, on a sultry August evening in a Ukrainian Orthodox community hall in Edmonton, the Sadies played my good friend’s wedding.

Game, set, match.

My gal married an Edmonton music promoter who had a long history of bringing the Sadies to E-town. When he envisioned a celebration worthy of the first day of the rest of his life with the girl who had " je ne regrette rien " tattooed across her back, he wanted the Sadies to provide the soundtrack. They were there in all their lanky retro cowboy shirted glory, strumming their guitars while little cousins scurried across the stage. It was beautiful.

They may be the ultimate wedding band.

On a recent tour of the U.K., where the underground alt-country Canucks are experiencing a flush of success, drummer/vocalist Mike Belitsky said a pair of enamoured fans proposed they fly the band back for their wedding.

Some bands that have been touring for years might take the invitation to play weddings as an affront to their professionalism. But the Sadies are not some bands. They take it for what it is – a compliment.

"That this is the biggest day in these people’s lives. You being there, whether you just show up in one of their pictures, or whether you are the band they have their first dance to, you’re part of their history," Belitsky says during a brief respite from sound check during the current tour’s stop in Regina.

"You’re starting that legacy with them... I don’t know. I’m just getting weird and romantic."

Weird and romantic is a pretty good description of the Sadies’ latest full-length album Favourite Colours (their fifth), released this past August on Toronto’s Outside Music. Aside from conjuring up the beauty of favourite colours, the name is a sly assertion of their Canadian identity. Both words are spelled differently in the U.S., which arouses curiosity south of the 49 th Belitsky notes.

Colours

is full of the eclectic and effective collaborations that have embellished the band’s sound throughout their career. Robyn Hitchcock sings the lead vocals on the closing track. Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor, Calexico’s Joe Burns and Elevator’s Rick White also contribute, along with the recording artist parents of the band’s front brothers Dallas and Travis Good.

Along with the usual suspect elements of Sadies sound there is a distinct nod this time around to ’60s folk-psychedelic harmonies and jangly guitars à la The Byrds.

"We all have such diverse musical backgrounds and we all listen to different things but we all have a mutual love for that band," Belitsky confirms. "We all knew that band before we knew each other." He also confirms the Sadies have their own version of hard partying David Crosby, but he won’t name names.

Following the current tour the band will revisit their past for a series of dates both opening for and supporting alt-cowgirl crooner Neko Case, with whom they have just released a live album. The Sadies’ association with Case as her supporting band dates back to 1997/98 (Belitsky’s estimate) and kick-started their recording career on Bloodshot Records – Case’s label at the time.

Belitsky deems collaborations "an integral part of our musical growth," musing for a while over who his fantasy collaborator would be before settling tentatively on Bob Dylan. It’s a tough decision but I remind him that since it is a "fantasy" collaboration there can be more than one.

"Wow," he replies. "This is the best altered reality ever."

The Sadies play the Garibaldi Lift Co. (GLC) on Tuesday, Nov. 23. For more information call the club at 604-905-2220.