2009-10-26: a Deet Street Hallowe'en party at the Railway Club

It’s that spooky time of year again and in the run up to All Hallow’s Eve, the Deet Street is getting psyched to bring a couple sets from some Railway veterans to get you movin’ your ghostly feet. The Creaking Planks, Vancouver’s own pirate jug band of the damned is back to bring you a musical experience unlike anything you’ve ever heard, the perfect accompaniment to your haunted pre-hallow’s Monday evening.

But before their spooky set, be sure to check out Gadjo’s Django Reinhardt-inspired gypsy swing; jazzy virtuosic mellowness at its best.

But wait, there’s more: be sure to get there early so you don’t miss a very special set from Al Mader, The Minimalist Jug Band. Al’s inimitable brand of beatnik punkabilly is something you won’t find anywhere on this earth.

Furthermore, being as we’re approaching Halloween, the Deet Street invites all of you to dress up as your favourite dead (ie: Michael Jackson, but he’s still merchandising his ass off), almost dead (ie: Amy Winehouse, poor girl needs to chill out) or should be dead (ie: Keith Richards, PS: WTF how the hell is he still going) musician. As always the beers will be cold, the music rocking, the company excellent and the times great. It’s the spookiest Monday night this side of a Scooby Doo Halloween Special.

The Railway Club is at 579 Dunsmuir Street (at Seymour, upstairs). Doors at 8:30PM, show at 9. Admission is $7 / $5 for Railway members.

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Even if we were on too late for the photographer to catch us, Lauren Eldridge of Backstage Vancouver soundly enjoyed this show, and wasn't afraid to tell everyone -- on its blog and on its Twitter feed! She came back for more the next night and got a very different beast at Blackstrap Sadie's 8)

2009-10-23: pre-Hallowe'en at the Rickshaw

Much to everyone's excitement and, all right, dismay, the original line-up of this Catfish production (and our first of several Hallowe'en shows) has been being gradually whittled away through eerie attrition like the cast of Poltergeist. Unfortunately this means that we won't be playing with the Tom Glenne 5.5 (a meeting of the minds pending almost two years) but we're still on to interweave dueling sets with folk-rockers Harm's Road, among a costume contest and other spooky seasonal festivities!

This all goes down at the Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings), the hottest live music venue at Hastings and Main since the Theatre E in the same location a decade prior! (No hard feelings, Balmoral! And that doesn't let the Pantages restoration efforts off the hook!) $10, doors at 8 pm ('til late!)

Hallowe'en bonus to thorough readers: Rudyard Kipling's story The Phantom Rickshaw, which comes up when you google "harm planks rickshaw" in an attempt to dig up information on this show.

2009-10-15: Creaking Planks feature at the Little Mountain Neighborhood House open mic

Even with no Oven Mitts, we managed to not only survive but thrive at HPVIII (for this to make any sense, you might well have to have been there), playing a set after being sweetly set up by rising uke superstar Rian O'Hara, hobnobbing with Dennis from the Ging Gang and Anton from Chervona for the benefit of the Accordion Noir radio show.

But having settled all those extraordinary transportation and sleeping arrangements, we're back here in time and blasting the word out to you lucky folks that in a few scant hours (doors at 7:30), a rump Creaking Planks will be featuring again at Rick Keating's open mic at the Little Mountain Neighborhood House (3981 Main Street at 24th Ave.)  Stay posted for further details about our k-razy slate of Hallowe'en shows!

2009-10-05: Planks at In the House's "Accordion to This"

In The House, which is trying on squeezeboxes as a theme for one of their monthly house concerts (perhaps as practice for their annual festival?), has engaged the services of the Creaking Planks to close a line-up highlighting the diversity of the free-reed aerophones known as accordions. Joining us on the bill are a Serbian Trio of kolo proportions and Marian Rose. The house in question this time around can be located at 2186 E. Pender St, with doors at 6:15 pm and the show starting at 7:00 pm. Tickets: $18 adults / $13.00 kids ... purchasable online in advance.

2009-10-04: Creaking Planks play the LMG during the Drift

The annual Drift Main Street artwalk has come upon us and with it, a good excuse for visiting our old haunt the Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th, formerly Little Mountain Studios) to play an afterparty of sorts. And who better to play with than our cronies in Mezamazing, last seen provoking a police visit at the Accordion Noir Festival launch party? Where everything is forbidden, everything must be permitted. Joining us, when he is not up the street at Cafe Montmartre, will be LMG honcho Ehren Salazar.  The show is likely to run from 8-11 pm ish.

2009-09-11: Creaking Planks headline the second annual Accordion Noir Festival's launch party at Cafe Montmartre

We had so much fun closing last year's Accordion Noir Festival in the middle of the night (sold out, line-up down the stairs and out on the sidewalk) that we just had to open a supplementary stage at this year's festival to give us another chance to play at it (while opening some room on the mainstage the next day for Story and Jason Webley.)  Seeking some squeezy acts with smaller stage footprints and performers with lower individual profiles in this town, we managed to secure a very exciting line-up of some of Vancouver's choicest bellowers:  Andy Fielding, Dawn Zoe (Alchemy), Tina Tew (Wintermitts), Barbara Adler (of the Fugitives), Joanna Chapman-Smith, the Balkan brass razzmatazz of Mezamazing at what can charitably be described as long last... and the Planks close again, because why mess with a tradition of such success?  We'll be starting at 8 pm and seeing just how much we can squeeze in by 1 am.  We play for tips at Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main at 28th Ave.) but a suggested donation would be seven dollars for all these great acts!

2009-09-09: Planks at Fringe Festival Gala afterparty

The Planks are chuffed to be playing (from 10:30 pm until... late!) at the St. Ambroise Fringe Bar immediately following the Vancouver Fringe Festival's Opening Gala.  Our performance will be situated in the Agro Cafe (1363 Railspur Alley) on Granville Island with the rest of the Fringe Festivities.  Head-scratchingly, we won't be there on one of the nights it hosts the Plank Club, but I suppose we guarantee one of our own.  We haven't been involved with the Fringe at all since being a backup band in 2005's Jew! A Musical so it's a nice opportunity to touch base with our roots and commiserate with actors crying in their drinks over the latest round of arts cuts.