As an experiment into filling a whole night at Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street at 28th Avenue) with varied textures of performance from members of our multifarious crew and extended family, the Creaking Planks celebrate Blackbox Squeezebeard entering into his fourth decade with the April (Ship of) Fools Variety Show from 8 pm through “late” (past midnight!) Saturday, April 4th. Performances will include magic from Travis, interstitial improvisation and ukulele from Ehren Salazar and John Barbour, new music from familiar faces Paul Hendriks (aka the Rev. Lucian Rumblebucket), possibly demonstrating his banjo aptitude, and Eryn Holbrook (aka Daisy Jones-Locher — who worked a wonderful whimsical adaptation of Hieronymus Bosch’s “Ship of Fools” into the show’s poster!) contributing a solo set a couple of months earlier than usual, sharing her voice-and-keys songwriting not much heard since the days of her Perpetual Dream Theory project. Also joining us will be a very special set from washtub bass outsider Al Mader, the Minimalist Jug Band, and of course a couple of sets of Creaking Planks creaking and planking.

At Montmartre we play for tips, but we anticipate your generosity in support of this jam-packed night and its auspicious occasion.

Edit: phew! What a night! Check out VanCityMike’s gallery of shots from the variety show up on Flickr!

Slightly under a year later, the Planks return to the wilds of North Van, packing along their unruly brand of demented trad. Starting at 8 pm, we’ll be playing a couple of sets at Beans on Lonsdale (1804 Lonsdale).

For the occasion, we re-worked Daisy Jones-Locher’s poster template — a revisitation of old imagery, reminiscent of our previous engagement but still very different. Maybe our set will be, too!

Licking its hard-earned wounds from the recent critical success at the Waterfront Theatre, the series resumes at the Little Mountain Studios (195 E. 26th at Main) presenting its varied music and comedy variety show, now on a monthly basis.

Acts this time around include the Planks, Stick Twigs, the unique improvised musical stylings of host EC Salazar, & more acts to be announced…

Salazar intones fatefully: “there may very well be multi colored balloons.”

The crew that put the icing on the cake of Obama’s inauguration party at Zawa’s is back again in a new room, the Purple Crab (3916 Main Street at 23rd), with fewer pesky televised distractions (however historical) cluttering up the performance schedule. (That crew being: Thee Ahs aka Lovenschtein and Schteige, Sister DJ’s Radio Band, and a closing set from us.) All that, plus: a set of magic from Dr. Steelhand, in honour of Sister DJ’s descent from the namesake of Mandrake the Magician!