10 more songs!

Another Sadies show, another 40-song set. I barely made it into the packed Barrymore's gig. When I went by the Aloha Room around 2:30 they were out of tickets, so I raced off to End Hits to by one of a remaining dozen. When I got through the front door around 9:30 opener C.R. Avery was on stage wearing a brown leather car coat, beatboxing his way through a tale which was, as far as I could tell, about boxing of the pugilistic variety. He got a pretty good reception from the audience - certainly better than most keytar-wielding storytellers might expect from the audience for what is, in essence, a country rock band. I enjoyed his set, but didn't think it had nearly the punch of a full-band set I witnessed two years ago at Bluesfest.
He was swiftly followed by Young Rival. The band seems to have shed their suits along with their previous name, Ride Theory, but their mod-rock-loving sound remains. They got up to speed after the first couple of songs and put on a really energetic show.
As for the Sadies, they've put in so many hours on stage they could probably play their set in their sleep. They have a new album to draw on (as well as recent soundtrack work for the Big Daddy Roth bio), and played plenty of old favourites like Rat Creek as well.
As usual they larded their performance with an excellent selection of covers, most of them familiar from previous shows in time, ranging from the old-time murder tune Pretty Polly, through The Byrds' Wasn't Born To Follow and The Flat Duo jets' Lucky Eye, with Travis turned in a serviceable imitation of Dexter Romweber's surly bark.
They finished their main set with C.R. Avery returning to play harmonica on Tiger Tiger from Stories Often Told - train songs always go better with harmonica, don't they?
And as sagely predicted in many quarters they returned for"10 more songs!" Flamin' Groovies' Shake Some Action and the appropriate and oft-covered Holland-Dozier Holland number Leaving Here (I've always thought they learned of it from the Motorhead version, for some reason).
My only regret is that my camera is in the shop, so there won't be any photos out of this show - sorry.

• Show reminder: Symphony In The Stairwell, Gun Metal Grey and Wise, Young and King perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox.