{"id":307188,"date":"2026-02-24T05:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/307188\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T05:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:28:10","slug":"sadies-drummer-mike-belitsky-talks-about-sharing-a-stage-with-the-late-gord-downie-he-brought-it-every-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/307188\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadies drummer Mike Belitsky talks about sharing a stage with the late Gord Downie: \u2018He brought it every night\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The album cover for Live At 6 O\u2019Clock. Sadies drummer Mike Belitsky is seen in the background.Eric Kozakiewicz\/Supplied<\/p>\n

A new archival live album from the Canadian super-group Gord Downie, The Sadies, and The Conquering Sun<\/a> is called Live At 6 O\u2019Clock. It\u2019s a reference to the band\u2019s set time at the 2014 Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in Fredericton, where some of the LP\u2019s eight songs were captured.<\/p>\n

The fiery album gathers covers of material written by Neil Young, the Stooges, the Who and others, along with a pair of original numbers from the band\u2019s lone album, a self-titled effort in 2014.<\/p>\n

Other tracks were recorded at the 2012 Greenbelt Harvest Picnic, in Dundas, Ont.; the 2014 Festival of Good Things, Sarnia, Ont.; and The Sinclair, Cambridge, Mass., in 2014. <\/p>\n

The new release is blistering but bittersweet. Tragically Hip frontman Downie died of glioblastoma<\/a> in 2017, at age 53. Sadies singer-guitarist Dallas Good died of natural causes<\/a> at age 48 in 2022.<\/p>\n

The 101 best Canadian albums<\/a><\/p>\n

Drummer Mike Belitsky of the still-active Sadies spoke to The Globe and Mail about sharing a stage with Downie, a poetic lyricist who possessed a unique physicality. <\/p>\n

The tracks on this live album span from when we first began playing together to when we were really clicking. It shows a trajectory, and it captures the excitement and energy of a new band, as well as a sense of discovery.<\/p>\n

Working within a band for a long time like the Sadies have, the band members have a shared DNA. It\u2019s all body language. With Gord, he\u2019s a dynamic performer. There definitely was a learning curve. He would introduce every song. As the drummer, having to start the songs, I would often not know when his talking had ended and when it was time to start the song. But I picked up on that soon enough. The shows flowed really well. <\/p>\n

His energy meshed with ours. He brought it every night. I\u2019m not saying other people we\u2019ve played with didn\u2019t, but there was a level to his performance that was like an old-time evangelist. He lost himself in the songs. It was easy to get swept up in that infectious energy. <\/p>\n

Gord was at a different level of stardom than ours. Still, he really wove himself into the fabric of Sadiedom. We were a unit. We toured in our van across Canada and the United States. He was there, sharing a bench seat with me. He never big-timed it \u2212 he was one of the guys.<\/p>\n

It was fun for me in particular. Gord might have been the only person who knew more about the Boston Bruins than me. <\/p>\n

The collaboration wasn\u2019t meant to be a one-and-done thing. There were plans to do more. We even started chipping away at new material. What people will hear on this record represents a beginning of a relationship we never thought would end. <\/p>\n

Hopefully the album will contribute to Gord\u2019s legacy. I think he really enjoyed the experience with us. If he didn\u2019t, he wouldn\u2019t have gotten into the van and driven through the Rockies. He could have just hopped onto an airplane and met us at the next gig.<\/p>\n

He never dialed it in. It didn\u2019t matter if we played a big festival or a small club. Gord just wanted to play. He was a true rock \u2018n\u2019 roller.<\/p>\n

\u2212 Mike Belitsky, as told to Brad Wheeler <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The album cover for Live At 6 O\u2019Clock. Sadies drummer Mike Belitsky is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409,14093],"class_list":["post-307188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}