Roky Erickson w/The Sadies @ Lee's Palace

If you're at all familiar with the sordid past of psych-rock pioneer Roky Erickson, than you know that it was only a few years ago that the possibility of ever seeing him perform live seemed about as likely as a warm winter in Toronto. His heavily permissive lifestyle back in the 60's while he was the leader of seminal psychsters the 13th Floor Elevators led to his being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1968, resulting in jailtime, electroshock therapy, and even a brief stint where he believed that aliens were coming to Earth to do him harm. It was only shortly after the end of the 90's that Roky finally received both the medical and legal aid necessary to help him on the road to recovery. It was in 2005 that he performed his first full length concert in 20 years, and it was from there that the momentum continued to grow, culminating this year in a brief four date tour that brought him to Chicago, Detroit, Hamilton and right here to Lee's Palace in Toronto last Wednesday night.

Since I attended another performance earlier in the evening, the situation lined up in such a way that I got to Lee's early enough to plop myself down on an elevated stool that was right up against the stage. In other words, best seat in the house, not only for Roky, but also for the openers whom I probably don't have to tell you too much about: The Sadies.

The insane talent of The Sadies has been documented quite extensively on this here site and I really don't know how much more I can add to what I've already said. When I first heard that my favourite cow-punkers would be opening for the garage rock legend, the match-up did not seem hugely unfathomable. I've seen The Sadies cover everyone from Love to The Stooges to The MC5, so their love of all things psychedelic and garage-y has been duly noted and sharing a stage with Roky seemed appropriate. I will say that limiting The Sadies to a 35 minute set is somewhat criminal because, although their set was as intoxicating as it always is, to my ears it felt as if they were just getting started. I will also say that they made good use of their limited time by blasting through as many songs as possible, including an outstanding new song that showcases just how diverse the Good brothers are. If the new album is as promising as the new song they played, it is sure to be a significant release for them.

Photos: My shots of The Sadies @ Lee's Palace are on flickr
Myspace: The Sadies
Download: Anna Leigh mp3
Video: Flash on youtube

As great as they were, the crowd was clearly there to see the legend, and right from the start Roky and his band commenced to rocking, obviously with the intent of laying any doubts to rest as quickly as possible. Roky was smart to surround himself with some highly experienced bandmates for the evening. He had Kyle Ellison (Meat Puppets / Butthole Surfers) on guitar, Matt Harris (The Posies / Oranger) on bass and Kyle Schneider (Ian Moore / Charlie Sexton and a billion other bands) on drums and they were as tight as could be. For obvious reasons, Roky can only get so animated but the enthusiasm exuded by the band themselves more than made up for that. Actually, it was admirable to see a fully competent band care for the areas that Roky was unable to care for himself, while not using the situation as an opportunity for personal grandstanding. To the band's credit, never once did they detract from the reason we were all there in the first place, that is, to see Roky Erickson. He played for about an hour or so, and played a variety of songs from different areas of his career. My personal highlight was hearing him end with some Elevators classics, namely Splash 1 and their signature hit You're Gonna Miss Me as well as a song from his Bleib Alien days called Two Headed Dog. After leaving the stage, the band shouted, applauded and hammered for an encore but, even though the setlist indicated that he was going to come back out with 1982's Don't Slander Me, apparently it was not meant to be. Personally, I've always appreciated an artist that can just make the last song count, instead of contriving up the joint with an anticlimactic encore. This is exactly what Roky did, and the show was everything I could ask for and more.

It's not too often that one gets to see a living legend perform, especially not at a moderately small venue like Lee's. The image of Roky on that stage is one that I will not be forgetting anytime soon. I think it was expressed most eloquently by a friend of mine, who was also there, when he described the image of Roky with his back to us playing guitar, fan blowing his silver-ish hair like he was on a beach in psychedelic garage heaven as completely blissful. Nicely put.

Photos: My shots of Roky Erickson @ Lee's Palace are on flickr.
Myspace: Roky Erickson
Myspace: 13th Floor Elevators
Video: You're Gonna Miss Me on youtube

Other stuff:

There's an interesting interview with Andrew Whiteman of Apostle of Hustle and Broken Social Scene by Matt McKechnie over at Thick Specs. He will be at Lee's Palace on November 19th. [Myspace: Apostle of Hustle]

The Wooden Sky have recently put together a project entitled "The Wooden Sky: A Documentary in Pieces" directed by Scott Cudmore on their summer ‘09 Bedrooms & Backstreets tour. The first two pieces are available here. They will be playing Lee's Palace on November 13th with Hooded Fang and Brian Borcherdt. [Myspace: The Wooden Sky]

Pick A Piper also have a new video up for their song Rooms using footage from all the way over in Iceland. Although today's mild snowfall has made me hate pretty much anything associated with the word "ice", the video is still actually pretty good. You can watch it here. PaP are playing Polish Combatants Hall on Nov. 7th and Rancho Relaxo on Nov. 21st. [Myspace: Pick A Piper]

Exclaim has an exclusive on the Born Ruffians follow up to last year's excellent Red Yellow and Blue. Apparently Luke Lalonde has decided that thinking too much is overrated and they're just going to do what feels right for the new one. We'll be able to find out how well the method worked when the album is released on Warp Records early next year sometime. [Myspace: Born Ruffians]

It may be still a little bit early for such lists, but Amazon has just compiled what is, to my knowledge, the first official list of the 100 Best Albums of 2009. And, big surprise, it looks nothing like what mine is going to look like. You can see the list here.