With Sam Cooke and Philippe Wynne gone, Al Green is my favorite living male singer. And when he sang at his Eastman Theatre show Friday night he was wonderful. The problem was, he didn't sing enough.

He spent a lot of time pandering -- "Rochester!!! Rochester!!!" -- a lot of time giving out roses, and a lot of time preaching. When he did sing, he liked to leave whole, precious lines to the audience. People seemed to love it, but I came to hear him sing.

Highlights included "Let's Stay Together," "Here I Am (Come And Take Me)" and "Love And Happiness." But, if he had to preach, couldn't he at least have sung "Take Me To The River"?

In one nice little section of the show, Green performed brief versions of songs he said he loved. It was great to hear that amazing voice sing even a few lines of "My Girl," "Can't Help Myself," "Dock Of The Bay," "Bring It On Home To Me," and "Wonderful World."

His band, which included his daughter as a back-up singer and announcer of sorts, was as tight as they get. And Green's voice seemed as strong as ever. But a lot of people I spoke to afterward felt like they didn't get enough.

 By the time the Al Green show had ended, Frank De Blase had advised me not to miss the band playing at Max's. I had not planned to see them, but as John Nugent likes to say, "It's not who you know, it's who you don't know." So, why not?

A cross between the Marx Brothers and the Brothers Karamazov, Billy's Band is theater of the absurd with music. The four musicians strutted around the stage at Max's in thrift-store raincoats torn in many places. If they noticed people out the window, they turned around and played for them.

Vadim "Billy" Novik has a way with English in a droll, this-Russian-is-saying-things-he-doesn't-understand manner. But he is fully in control, playing bass and singing with a voice that, by turns, channels Louis Armstrong and Tom Waits.

Guitarist Andrey Ryzhik is the Harpo Marx of the group, seemingly in a purple haze that he can't shake. He can, however, shake the animal growing on the top of his head like crazy. (Don't worry, it's his hair.) Anton Matezius is an accordion wizard who also filled in on percussion and occasionally sang. And Mikhail Zhydkikh wailed beautifully on sax.

A typical song would start with Novik delivering a deadpan monologue while the others huddled behind him noodling around on their instruments. Before you knew it the song had started and the whole band was illustrating it with just the right coloration.

The entire set made me feel as if a band of wondrous vagabond musicians from the early 20th century had time-traveled to Max's. We all sat there and watched them in awe until they disappeared.

On the festival's final night, I'll be checking out the Barbara Dennerlein Duo and The Sliding Hammers.