So a flock of us went down to the Yard Dogs Roadshow gig at the Commodore last nite, Sunday May 6th. For openers we had Tarran the Tailor who, aside from all their past shows at the Railway, has strung up a kind-of-a Gypsiesque set of ballads, the way his banjo sounded good on that day, with allusions to groups to the likes of Ora Cogan, Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Leon Redbone, Tarif de Haidouks, Jess Hill, Lee Hutzulak, Organ Trail, Georgian Mens Choir, Houndog, Moondog, Ancient Rugged Revival, among others.

I then saw what came to be the second opener for the YDR, a most spectacular vaudeville circo burlesque theatrical, reputedly by the name of Sweet Soul Burlesque. An enchanting set of Burlesque dancers treated the audience to a trip of flirts to which the whole stage hollered. Flirts in the form of dance, striptease, song, rap, and other. With slick introductions and such smooth performances, these dancers set the stage for the Yard Dogs Roadshow.

In short, the Yard Dogs were a carnival of genius and eloquent performative wit, oft said to habe been born from the saloon vaudeville that toured the Wild West over 200 years ago. They indeed required a sentivity to the profound, the absurd, the witty, and humorous, and the subtle - particulary when it came to their subtle lyrics and facial expressions. All this executed in a seemingly half-drunk manner, suggesting that the performers stood at a thin line between genius and utter-drunkenness, albeit with a flawless timing and execution evident in the flow from act to act, and song to song. If, as many descriptions attest, they embody a surreal union of ancient theatrical alchemy and modern pop culture, they indeed have managed to fuse things as sword swallowing with modern folk, all coupled with virtuoso guitar in more than one of their acts.

In the end, "you really did not want to miss it..."