2008-08-10: Planks play the Penthouse!

Much to everyone's surprise, the Planks were invited to one of our "blue sky" Vancouver venues hitherto unvisited.  No, not the Orpheum, no, not the Commodore, but one surely as storied and with as many legends: the Penthouse night club (1019 Seymour), once the nexus of Vancouver's sex trade... and now seeking to diversify its brand and meet the Vancouver need for more (and more diverse) live music performance venues!  The event, a nominal installment of the regular "Circle of Songwriters" series, is presented by the VanArtsCollective, and features a performance by Joseph Blood, the man who invited us, as well as renowned (war torn) wild man of the woods Rodney DeCroo.

Here is a nice little professional-looking handbill promoting the event:

... this one, less so. The show should start around 8 pm, with a cover of $6.  (If you want to stuff dollar bills down our shorts while we play, that's a different matter.)

Update: briefly caught on camera! Thanks, unkle!  A bootleg recording of our performance is also circulating.

Photo by Sarah Partridge.

2008-06-21: Planks play the grand re-opening of Spartacus Books!

Somehow we knew we'd end up back at the Gaff Gallery, and even though it's been some five months, the fates have us returning to 684 E. Hastings to perform at a new venue occupying its old site -- now Vancouver's premiere anarchist bookstore, Spartacus Books!  Squeezebeard having run so many installments of the 57 Varieties open stage and the Perpetual Motion Roadshow at the old Spartacus (to say nothing of Accordion Noir, and its subsequent monthly accordion circle, being merely a byproduct of a chance encounter on its floor), it was truly a no-brainer to get the Planks on board to perform at its grand re-opening.

Live performances are going on from 7-10 pm, including sets from The Holdouts, Joey Only, and DJ Like the Wolf; in addition, there will be the unveiling of a new hipster art exhibition by Miranda Nelson, "Pirates vs. Ninjas vs. Robots" (where are the Zombies?), as well as spirited readings of radical children's books earlier in the day. To top it all off, they're celebrating their new location by holding a massive sale on all their used books!   At prices like this, it just doesn't make sense to prop up authoritarian systems!

Update: Erin Bee took photos!  Only two of us made it, but we gave everything we had!

2008-06-20: Planks feature at the Beats on Broadway open mic

Earle Peach invited us to feature at his "Beats on Broadway" open mic at the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood House (800 E. Broadway, a block or so east of Fraser), and we were thrilled to accept.  We joked that, following our feature set at Rick Keating's open mic at the Little Mountain Neighborhood House, we would be embarking on the lucrative local Neighborhood House tour circuit.  Oh, wait... that might not be so ridiculous after all.  Unfortunately, not all of these community service locuses enjoy the prestige of the venues offered at Mount Pleasant and Little Mountain, but we'll see how things develop.

Then, Earle invited us again.   We didn't know how to fit it in, but we accepted nonetheless -- after all, we already had an engagement there that night, but maybe we could sneak out and rush back to take the second gig.  That, or we could split in half and play two sets simultaneously -- or one set in stereo!  In any case, this will be among our final summer performances for some time, after an impressive run of serious performances to pumped crowds, so consider joining us at 7:30 pm before we tip the solstice over!  (more information on Facebook)

2008-06: Catchup

Not all of our functions have turned up here, sometimes due to certain last-minute qualities of their booking and promotion, other times because they were essentially private parties and we had no business inviting strangers into our friends' homes.  All the same, we had a blast nonetheless and would like to commemorate those gigs here among the rest of our performances.

* June 6th we were invited to perform at Tally's fundraiser, the "Pan-Van Variety Hour" at the Rio Theatre, hoping to generate proceeds to help send her to Tanzania to do work with Youth Challenge International! We were invited to play in the middle of the night, which amounted to Squeezebeard taking the stage solo at the conclusion of the proceedings, performing a set to the other performers (including Jill Binder and the Baby Jessicas) before they went home.  Somehow, Tally ended the night up $400 and we ended up with a bottle of red wine, so all's well that ends well.  A good debut at the Rio, and I can't wait to return!

* June 13th was back to the Foxy House for the second party in three days, this time a joint celebration of Jhayne and Venus' birthdays.  Shortly following a visit from Vancouver's finest boys in blue, Dr. Steelhand wrapped up another incredible display of magic and legerdemain and a gaggle of unruly Planks crammed into a window vestibule to make a room sweat and tremble.  We have foxy resident Chelsea Johnson to thank for getting the dance groove started, one so unshakeable it would not be stymied even by the end of the planned set.  Greetings also to the Slavic lads of Mezamazing who came by to say (bellow is more like it) hello following their surprise appearance on that night's episode of Accordion Noir!  (Here's a photo by Andrew Bankley demonstrating our cramped dance floor.  (And some more!) We demolished that living room!) (Only figuratively speaking, however.)

* June 15th we streamlined down some grand plans to take to the Car-Free Festival, meeting up at the great granddaddy of them all on Commercial Drive for some of us to play a set directly opposite a drum circle.  If ukuleles could cry, they would.  Instead, we shuffled over a block south of Kitchener and stopped traffic for a glorious quarter-hour or so. Later, some of us reconvened on Main Street to catch Wyoming Johnny sitting in with Whiskey Jar.

* The next day, June 16th, traditional Monday evening Planks practice was derailed by hopes to crash a poetry party at the site of the emerging Cedar Cottage Community Gardens beneath the SkyTrain tracks, at the old Austrian-Canadian Friendship Park between Broadway and Nanaimo Station.  (Fortunately for us, the plans are all that were derailed.)  One by one all the Planks conked out until Squeezebeard was once again left by his lonesome with enough baked goods to feed the band that wasn't there.  Fortunately, the poets and gardeners were quite receptive (one might even say... hungry) for what he had to offer up for their mouths and ears.  Perhaps someday the full ensemble will revisit the stage there and perform a work especially commissioned to work around the indeterminicies inherent in the noisy movements of the trains rumbling overhead.  (Hey, a guy can dream!)

2008-06-07: 6⋅7⋅8 ⋅ a night of musical numbers

We played tag for a year and a half trying to get Eryn Holbrook (occasionally aka Daisy Jones-Locher) a gig at the Butchershop Floor, and then when we finally had it clinched, the space closed down.  But because it is the only way for us to get a chance to hear her compositions on voice and keyboard, we put together another show for her (and us) at the Annex for last year's Music Waste festival -- also the first Plankian appearance of (ir)regular Peg-Leg Right-Eye Ryan!  A year later we had a hankering to hear her stuff again, and so we bring it full circle back to the Little Mountain Studios, on the site of the old Butchershop, at 195 E. 26th (at Main), for a night of musical numbers. Hosting the proceedings is LMS proprietor Ehren "Monsterdinosaur" Salazar, doubtlessly regaling us with tales and tunes of ages so bygone they haven't happened yet.  Also on deck is a magic show from our own Dr. Steelhand of the slide guitar!  Doors at 8, $3 cover.  Sure to be one of our most charming summer evenings yet!

2008-06-05: Music Waste trad showcase with Dyad, Ora Cogan, and Hank & Lily

The Music Waste festival is a longstanding hipster tradition in Vancouver, an indie Salon des Refusés in response to the apparently corporatized Music West (and now New Music West); in keeping with its bohemian name, often the acts it hosts are more Metal Machine Music than Top-40, not necessarily the friendliest or most accessible performances but (rest assured) more than cool enough to make up for any unpolished auditory abrasiveness: it's raw and fresh, like sushi, and like sushi only carries with it a slight chance of making you ill.

Last year, never considering ourselves quite cool enough for main festival inclusion, the Planks put on a musical sideshow in association with it as part of their "Go Your Own Waste" (essentially Bring Your Own Venue) initiative; we descended upon the little underutilized Gastown stage at the back of the Annex (no longer with us) and presented recent musics from Adri Lake and Eryn Holbrook (aka sometimes-Plank Daisy Jones-Locher) at a charming sold-out venue. But you'll be hearing more about that one soon.

Keen on revisiting a smashing June show, we applied to the festival again in the hopes of mounting a similar show and much to our delighted surprise found ourselves curated right into the main festival program with a stellar program of similar acts we might never have otherwise appeared with: the resolute traditionalists of Dyad, Victorian comic-vaudevillains Hank & Lilly, and Ora Cogan, recently returned from Northwest Folklife! Icing the cake (let us leave that sushi metaphor behind us), we get to all take the stage in the charming heritage room of Radha Yoga & Eatery, above the Brickhouse at 728 Main Street. A far cry from the excesses suggested by the festival name: folk music in a yoga studio? Don't get too settled, though, as we will find a way to move you.  Planks are slated to start playing at 8:30 pm!

Festival passes (a saving if you want to see more than three shows, and there are plenty of hum-dinger line-ups to pick from) can be purchased for $15 at Zulu Records (1972 W 4th Ave), Scratch Records (726 Richards Street), Limelight Video (2505 Alma Street), Redcat Records (4307 Main Street), and Audiophile Records (2016 Commercial Drive).

2008-05-30: Velofusion party at the ANZA Club!

In the run-up to Bike Month, aka "June" to the uninitiated, the month of May in these parts always features a pirate-themed Critical Mass ("Critical Mast") group bicycle ride (-- they're not blocking traffic, they ARRRR traffic!) ... And who better to play its monthly "Velofusion" afterparty than Vancouver's pre-eminent pirate band?

Further contributing to our "good fit" for this long-considered show, proceeds raised through tonight's celebrations will go to benefit Free Geek Vancouver, the Portland-emigrated free software e-waste solution who we're considered the "house band" of (experts, after all, in the field of salvaging further use from old trash.) Though the particulars are still technically up in the air, if this month's installment is anything like its predecessors, there is likely a $10 admission ($5 for Critical Mass participants) and the bill is very likely to contain some DJ-fueled dancing madness (oho, Timothy Wisdom!) spilling out on to the ANZA Club floor... so get ready to strap on your pegs and patches and prepare to shiver timbers and discover booty as we make you walk the Plank!

(As a special bonus, click on the thumbnail for the general Critical Mass poster. It's really quite charmingly whimsical!  Also on tap now: FreeGeek's own poster for the event!  A bit more explicit and inclusive than ours -- but they knew more than we did 8)

Also a special greeting and thanks to our friends in Portland for a thrilling moustache party weekend! Cheers also to the folks at Bex's crashed BBQ -- two kegs of homebrew and a Balkan band make up for any license taken with the +1s.