Photos Courtesy of Scott Diamond and the Town of Perinton

On a pastoral hillside in the eastern hills of Fairport, NY, the Perinton Center Park Amphitheater played host to a stellar double bill of Canadian bands. The clandestine facility is both intimate and expansive and spotlights excellent sight lines and wonderful sound. In collaboration with Rochester Events, the venue will be host to similar musical escapades for the foreseeable future.

The Sadies, much more than an opening act, are a Canadian institution, and have been thrilling audiences with their specialized brand of rock/country/psych for over thirty years. The group lost founding member Dallas Good in 2022 and have soldiered on stoically with Dallas’s brother Travis (guitar, vocals), Sean Dean (bass), and Mike Belitsky (drums) continuing to disseminate the band’s legacy thoughtfully.

The Sadies kicked off the evening with an array of double time country funk, honky-tonk instrumentals, and saturated fuzz guitar riffs.  

They opened with an up-tempo rockabilly version of the traditional song “Little Sadie,” and then segued through a diverse selection of their catalog. Originals, covers, and instrumentals played into focus like a late-night tuning in of lost FM airwaves.

From the paisley drift of “Message to Belial,” from 2022’s Colder Streams, to the high tempo homage to the Canadian Squires (later to become The Band) with a chunky cover of the 1965 single “Leave Me Alone,” the group played with mod intensity while paying tribute to their lost brother and bandmate.

Running the gamut from clip clop country to Crazy Horse-esque jamming, the Sadies beginning set was well played and could have easily been a headlining slot.

The main musical event, The Dead South, are a dusty contemporary bluegrass quartet that took to the stage at 9:15 to rapturous response. While the band’s music is constructed around the classic bluegrass aesthetic, their originality is in strident, driving, and theatrical twists on the form. The band plays with purposeful western dramatics based on their own authentic expressionism. They play the part, with bolo ties, suspenders, wide brimmed hats, slacks and dress shirts ­—like hippy quakers heading to Sunday service.

The band features strictly acoustic instruments that are often changed out between members. Though occasionally a kick drum or sonically dressed foot stomp contribute additional rhythm. Rough-hewn yet crisply rendered vocals are swapped like a campfire bottle of wine. The band eschews tradition and injects rock and roll elements into their arrangements blending both genres and intent.

Members Nate Hilts (vocals, guitar, mandolin), Scott Pringle (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Danny Kenyon (cello, vocals), and Colton Crawford (banjo) are all equally able to lead, fall back or share. Their voices, a balance of sweet and sour, smooth and gritty.

The band walked on stage to the crooked sounds of “Snake Man Pt 1,” from their Sugar and Joy album before opening the concert proper with the slithering syncopation of “Snake Man Pt, 2.” Trilled mandolin and undulating banjo striking early and often while the band’s three-part harmonies soared into the forest air.

“20 Mile Jump,” was a boom-chucking groove with heavy mandolin chops giving the song a high falutin’ flight that got the crowd rising beers into the air and shaking their bottoms.

Each song is a saloon style vignette, many based around classic chord changes but refreshed with a current bent. Played in a tight but loose fashion, the band gathered in intimate circles to kick off songs before entering into syncopated moves and choreographed grooves.

So began a two-hour set of darkened hymnals, campfire serenades, and medicine show sing alongs. The quartet appeared as a wagon team ready to convince you of the viability of their latest nostrums.

The song “Yours to Keep,” encapsulated the band perfectly with gnarly Appalachian banjo lines and high and lonesome vocals. Yet there is something discernable in the song that separates it from tradition and makes it uniquely their own.

The song that pushed the band’s popularity into a new place a decade ago, “In, Hell, I’ll be in good company,” was performed replete with choreographed struts to the rhythm.

The band also dipped into the cool well of their catalog with “That Bastard Son,” “Broken Cowboy,” from the group’s album Sugar and Joy, and several new songs from their 2024 record Chains and Stakes.

It is hard to tell if The Dead South are theatrically self-deprecating or happily inhabiting the characters that they have developed through their musical ruminations. In the end all that matters is that their music is well played, got folks dancing, hollering, and forgetting their woes for a brief period.

The Sadies, and The Dead South were a diverse and welcome double bill to bring to the newly realized Perinton Center Park Amphitheater. The entire evening was a quirky combo of genre blending, swilling, and song, and for that the evening was a great success.