unintended in london

no, not a witty slogan for my time spent here in this city. this week i had intended on attending the unintended at call the office. the show was last nite, and indeed i did.

my cronies along for the ride: scottie, brahm, darin and erin.

the unintended are The Sadies with Rick White (Eric's Trip / Elevator fame) and Greg Keelor (of Blue Rodeo fame).

canadian rock n roll at it's ugliest and most pyschadelic. they ploughed through most of their only release to date, a self-titled album that was born on keelor's farm in the winter of 2003, and mixed in some newer tunes and some ridiculous covers for the encore. it was obvious to me that Dallas Good is the pyschadelia in the band, while Keelor is the man keepin' it heady... the grin never left his face all night... due to rock n roll or hashish, i dont know, but i'll take it either way. i've seen Keelor twice before on larger stages, so it was great to see him in a club setting like this. also, having seen the sadies before, it was a real treat to see them show off some of their more grittier skills. at times, the 4 guitar assault was mind bending and ear piercing, but very welcome... throw dallas on the organ, close your eyes and drift... put keelor on the 2nd kit, and the double drum attack had me thinking back to my grateful dead collection, reminiscing of a sweet '68 Eleven jam. right on! i cant offer a setlist, but i can tell you my favourite of the night was Stay Calm - a super heady subway that winds it way through a snowy forest and reminds us to stay calm in the cold... yes.. will do... thank you. i think it was The Collapse that closed the set and that was an absolute monster - massive jam to finish the show in a big way, or rather, to set up for an even bigger encore... they came out and launched into a raucous version of neil young's Are You Ready For The Country, then followed that up with 2 successive tracks from pink floyd's Pipers At The Gates of Dawn.... are you kidding me??? the most EPIC of encores!

this was a real treat to see this little canadian supergroup, especially in a little club 3 minutes away... show was sparsely attended, maybe 40 or 50 people, and as usual, we missed the opening act, Andre Ethier of the Deadly Snakes... which is too bad cuz i really wanted to see that, and darin said he was real good. shit.

all in all, a great show, and im real glad i was one of the few lucky londoners who got to take this in. looking forward to more future unintended related musical goodness - if they're ever in your neck of the woods, dont miss 'em.