Live Review: Justin Townes Earle, Joshua Hedley, The Sadies

Legendary Toronto outfit The Sadies have been churning out timeless gothic, alt-country noir for well over 20 years now, but incredibly tonight's opening slot marks their first-ever gig in Australia during their long and storied history.

They've been brought out ostensibly to act as backing band for tonight's headliner and are sneaking in the chance to showcase their own music, earlycomers treated to a set that is visceral, powerful and affecting in equal measure. Talented multi-instrumentalist brothers Dallas and Travis Good alternate between frontman duties, songs such as The First 5 Minutes, So Much Blood, Tell Her What I Said and The Story's Often Told dark, brooding and ominous in all the right ways. They're relaxed and confident, throwing in barnstorming instrumentals at regular intervals to let their unabashed musicianship run rampant, and when they finish a thrilling set with the rollicking Tiger Tiger it's apparent that this is one of the most ridiculously great opening acts one will ever have the pleasure of witnessing. 

After a short break a portly, bearded figure in a vivid turquoise nudie suit and Stetson ambles to the microphone and introduces himself as Nashville troubadour Joshua Hedley and, although he looks the part, when he unleashes his voice on opening track Counting On My Tears it brings immediate shivers, his vocal timbre clear, precise and the perfect encapsulation of classic country. Hedley can usually be found playing for tips in Nashville honky tonks, although he's a gun for hire as well - last spied in Australia playing fiddle with tonight's main act (who he refers to as his "old boss") - but he has the crowd in the palm of his hand as he throws in tunes like If These Walls Could Talk, sounding for all the world like classic country crooners such as Marty Robbins and Merle Haggard. Hank Williams Jr cover Old Habits hits hard, but it's Hedley's own tunes like Weird Thought Thinker, Mr Jukebox and Let's Take A Vacation that mark him as an Americana star in waiting.

Justin Townes Earle, conversely, needs little introduction, having been a regular visitor to these shores in the last eight or so years, and he gets a raucous ovation when he and The Sadies enter the fray and ease into Champagne Corolla, the opening track from his most recent album Kids In The Street. The Sadies crew - now augmented by pedal-steel virtuoso Paul Niehaus - immediately prove the perfect foil, far more restrained than during their own set but providing the perfect bedrock for Earle to move through tunes like Maybe A Moment, One More Night In Brooklyn, What She's Crying For and the poignant Move Over Mama, their arrangements full, dense and alive. The rhythm section of Sean Dean (upright bass) and Mike Belitsky (drums) lock in to provide a perfect gentle swing, whether on cheery prostitute lament Black Eyed Suzy or the plaintive Nothing's Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now. Earle himself is no longer the young malcontent of previous tours - older and seemingly wiser, and seeming content in his new role as father and family man - but his songs lack no bite or punch. He drops his guitar and goes into pure frontman mode for the New Orleans swamp of 15-25 before the band leave the stage completely and he tackles They Killed John Henry, Mama's Eyes and a brilliant reinterpretation of Paul Simon's Graceland in solo mode, the latter completely recast in his own inimitable image. After the band returns to the stage, Earle offers a Southern Hemisphere shout-out in the form of Christchurch Woman, Rogers Park drips with world-weary resignation and blaring harp dominates the aural vista of Ain't Waitin'. There's always a lot of heart and soul coursing through Earle's music, the singer dedicating the fragile White Gardenias to jazz legend Billie Holiday before finishing the set proper with the heartfelt What Do You Do When You're Lonesome and the punchy Short Hair Woman. 

An encore is always a given, rapturous applause coaxing the crew quickly back to the fray - Earle donning his guitar by placing it on the ground, stepping into the strap and wriggling it up his lithe frame - and they take us home with the "Lucinda Williams shuffle" of Faded Valentine and a jovial take on Harlem River Blues. What dominates conversation as we file out into the darkness is just how great tonight's performance has proven from go to woah, a triple-attack of awesomely authentic Americana from three completely different but entirely complementary angles.