Thumbs up for Bekki & Nina. Grady too (27 photos)

Before digging into the meat and potatoes of last night's Grady performance at the Canadian Night Club, SooToday.com would first like to offer a couple of thumbs-ups.

The first goes to Bekki Friesen, the Vogue model-pretty front woman of the evening's opening act, Domenica.

As if having the stones to front a hard rock band that, at times, tips towards the metal side of the scale wasn't enough, Friesen is also a solid guitar player with a wicked set of pipes.

Any woman who can write, sing and totally rock numbers like I Love My Gun and Porno State of Mind is pretty darn cool in our books.

The other thumbs-up goes to Grady's teeny, tiny drummer Nina "The Queena" Signh (shown) for two reasons.

Not only did Nina beat the skins to within an inch of their lives and deliver double bass beats with lightening speed, she emerged on stage last night sporting a Crank Sound Distribution tank top, much to the delight of Crank's head honcho, George Ravlich.

These two ladies rank extremely high on our "cool rocker chick" scale.

For showing that ladies can rock as hard, if not harder than men, we thank them.

Now for the main course.

Grady, fronted by proud Canadian guitar wizard Gordie Johnson, is in the midst of a tour in support of the band's third release, Good As Dead.

With Johnson's relocation from Toronto, Ontario to Austin, Texas, his sound morphed from the reggae blues rock he offered with Big Sugar to the cowboy metal he now produces with Grady.

The Texas influence permeates the latest record, even more so than it did on the previous two as Johnson graduates into full shredneck mode.

It's thick and meaty with cutting riffs and sharp slide work over subtle blues/ roots, and Latin tones.

Last night's performance included many selections from Good As Dead, such as Whatchewdid, Whiskey River, Alberta Bones, Blackass Woman, When the Boots Come Off and a cover of the Tragically Hip's Boots or Hearts.

Although it appears Johnson has retired his Canadian flag Gibson double-neck and often has a tequila-twang in his voice, it's comforting to see he hasn't forgotten where he's from.

Despite the disappointing turnout - about 50 people braved Grady's notorious volume and power - Johnson assured fans following the show that the band would indeed return to the Sault.

Thank you for loving what you do, Mr. Johnson.