2009-10-31: Hallowe'en with the Whiskeydicks

The jug band of the damned is going insane in the Samhain with their most booze-fuelled fiddle-rapping comrades ever the WhiskeyDicks from 10 pm on at Malone's Bar & Grill (608 W. Pender @ Seymour). $10 doesn't only get you admission to this bash, but a chance to compete for fabulous costume prizes in the categories of best Thriller, best killer, best sexy (yes, the chiller and diller get short shrift yet again), and best overall costume (don't be confused).

2009-10-30: Velowe'en on Devil's Night!

As ancient lore tells it, Veloween is an age-old festival where for one day of the year old, dead, abandoned, dismembered and forgotten bicycles awaken to roll amongst the well-oiled and able-framed. We will celebrate together in copious ritualistic beer drinking and dance, possessed by the rhythms of the Creaking Planks, the Fur Bearing Animals and DJ Steamboat Fatty. A practice known to raise the dead follows, the eldritch Jackson Zombie Dance Off. Offerings to the shadow world will be made by Little Woo and her shadow puppet fairytale.

The best dressed bicycle competition commences the moment Critical Mass arrives at the Anza Hall (3 W. 8th Avenue at Ontario); the rider of the best-dressed bicycle wins never-ending pints all night.

At the strike of one am -- for those who are most fearless amongst us -- we will ride naked in circles around our celebration (did we mention that the event is a fundraiser for the 2010 World Naked Bike Ride?) to chase the bikes of the dead back to the underworld!

8 pm - 2 am; $10 / $5 if in costume with Critical Mass

2009-10-27: Blackstrap Sadie's Old Time Jamboree #2

Blackstrap Sadie (perhaps best not to ask what those straps are for) mounts the second of her extraordinary hootnannys down on Cafe Montmartre's cozy little stage (4362 Main Street at 28th), the next best thing to a front porch, where the bill boasts "everything from blues to bluegrass to old time to originals and all the beauty that there is, in between." Fortunately for us, that grey liminal zone is our specialty.

We (who? Anna Scouten, Andrew Beaty, Sarah Jane Scouten, Martin Riesle of Maria in the Shower), the Lawn Dogs, and more!) play for tips at Cafe Montmartre!

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.