Due to the vagaries of city planners and zoning bylaws, there are some neighborhoods in which live music is performed publicly on a regular basis and others in which it rarely is. (See: the whole south-east quarter of Vancouver, in which we haven’t had a single engagement in our three years. We invite you to help us overturn that awful record!) Compound this with a tendency to stick to the tried and true on top of a certain gravitating toward familiar venues near the abodes of band members. If you live just off of Commercial Drive, as many Planks do, this is a tendency that works in your favor. If, conversely, you live in North Vancouver, this means a godawful haul just to get to practice!

This has been the case for stalwart Planks percussionist Felonious P, who has tirelessly crossed bridges and bodies of water time and again, hauling his ironing board and rhythmic rummage sale on countless occasions for what are often only minor gigs and never complaining even once. While technically we performed in North Vancouver back in February while waiting for pirates to return on the SeaBus, we have never enjoyed the extravagant cachet of a show there in, say, an indoor venue. This time, he turns the tables, having arranged for us to come play a show on his home turf: this Monday night, Creaking Planks descend upon North Van to tirelessly bombard the denizens of Beans on Lonsdale (1804 Lonsdale Ave., to be precise!) with our unique brand of, well, damnable jug band musicmaking from eight through ten pm.

And presenting: our first use as intended of Daisy Jones-Locher’s outstanding Planks poster template, reworked by her to include the vital details!

April’s been a busy month of catch-up for us! In the aftermath of A Dybbuk, we enjoyed a fragmentary turnout at two after-parties (Squeezebeard keeps losing the addresses; he says, just gimme a treasure map an’ I’se kin find X well enough!), played two great shows back in our goofy element, the first (Apr 11th) back at Trees (to which we will be returning again in early September) and the next (April 14th) a homecoming show of sorts, acoustic with friends sitting on the floor in the gallery of the Little Mountain Studios, where we’re the house band, site of so many practices, rehearsals and residencies… as well as a big noisy party celebrating Squeezebeard’s birthday. On top of the shows, a swell arrangement with some charming PAVI students had a couple of us recording some backbone tracks at Blue Wave Studios, drawing on the next-door-recorders Company B to provide some zombie gang groans with improbably professional equipment. We’ll let you know how those turn out as we put down some overdubs on top. All that plus Lee Shoal and Planks pal Allan Macinnis got us a mention in the current issue (edit: huh! and an earful on the website) of the UK music magazine The Wire. Not bad for a couple of weeks getting back into the swing of things!

There are of course more shows coming up. Some of them are quite imminent, in fact. Tonight, Planks will be taking to the stage as features at the Little Mountain Neighbourhood House’s (3981 Main Street at 24th Ave.) weekly Thursday night open mic, hosted by the man who put the cur in curmudgeon, Rick Keating! Our fiddler Johnny Wyoming, a regular at the series, recounts that the evening tends to unfold with socialising around 7:30 pm, the open mic rolling on at 8 through 8:45 for a brief intermission before an hour of feature performance starting around 9 pm.

More is coming up quick — Planks should be playing at Beans (1804 Lonsdale Ave.) in North Vancouver next Monday (April 28th) 8-10 pm, then we have a special Tuesday morning engagement with FreeGeek, our other “house band” engagement, and new shows cropping up in May and beyond… but one thing at a time. First let’s get through tonight and see what remains when Rick’s done with us!