OTTAWA - I've heard it said The Sadies are an unbelievable band to see live.

At first I thought the brothers Good -- singers/guitar virtuosos Dallas and Travis, who is also an awesome fiddler -- were simply the "best facial contortionists while singing" I'd ever seen.

But by the time the lanky duo launched into 16 Mile Creek early into last night's too-short 75-minute Ottawa Tulip Festival concert -- and the second "Shoop, Shoop" -- I was thinking they were playing one of the craziest songs I'd ever heard.

There aren't many other acts that could sound this lush, this wild, this complete, on a cold stage in Major's Hill Park.

The crowd of about 2,500 who'd gathered by the time the Sadies took the stage ate it up, shouting out songs and encouragement and singing right along to their twangy brand of surf tunes-meets-souped-up-country-crazy-rock.

The brothers' guitar picks are grounded by Sean Dean on the big bass and drummer Mike Belitsky, with righteous flair added by Paul "The Blizzard" Brainard on pedal steel guitar.

The Toronto band even made it a family affair, with the Goods bringing their parents up on stage to sing and play harmonica.

Ottawa alt-country rockers The Fiftymen put on an awesome, almost hour-long performance to open the show, getting most of a gathering twilight crowd tapping their toes as they followed Greenfield Main and Slo Tom.

The group stuck to new tunes from their next, in-progress album but played just a few old favourites from their debut album After Dark Fall, sparking the crowd to chime in as usual with "just like Steve McQueen!" on the hardcore country tune Jimmy Turner.

One of the highlights was their performance of Can't Walk Away, a tune which didn't make it onto the first album but has been re-recorded and might make it onto their yet-to-come follow-up.

Another highlight was 22 Minutes, when Hardill let his last note linger as he stepped away from the mike and let the sideburned, embroidered shirt-wearing band -- drummer Jake Bryce, bassist Michael Houston Hanlon, guitarists Mark Michaud and Todd Gibbon, and fiddler and banjo player Keith Snider -- build from slow notes to a frenetic, all together now, want-to-jump-up-and-down ending.

And that's exactly what their faithful followers were doing.

SUN RATING: 4 stars out of 5