2011-06: We got caught by surprise

One of the classic benchmarks of the Creaking Planks is that we know we’ll have an awesome time if we’re not the strangest thing on the bill. (Don’t get me wrong, we also have a great time when we are the strangest act, which we overwhelmingly are, but anything stranger than us really demands sitting up and paying attention to.) This past weekend we had the pleasure of enjoying two such shows on two consecutive days!

Saturday, June 25th, the Creaking Planks had their second performance in their stripped-down Royal Doilies format, playing without Airbeard, who was away hosting at the Campbell Bay Music Festival. This saw an unruly handful of Planks assemble at W2 to celebrate the book launch of The Amaranthian Testament, illustrated by the namer of the Planks, one Olo J. Milkman. Joining us on the bill were numerous experimental noise and video performance acts we hadn’t crossed paths with since our very early days, as well as Vancouver weirdo music elder statesman Veda Hille. Sometime well after the show was done, the sound checks finished.

(Video by Joel Snowden)

Sunday, June 26th was Vancouver’s first installment of the Mini Maker Faire phenomenon, a little slice of nerdy projects and Burning Man installations getting their test-run before the annual Playa marathon. Between such monumental pieces as the gramophone rail car, the world’s largest tricycle and the shipping container gallery could be found tables full of hackers programming LEDs and lasers for good rather than evil. In the far corner outside was a musical stage featuring numerous peculiar and atmospheric acts, and toward the end of the program the Creaking Planks took the stage to show the Makers what we’d made out of some of their favorite songs. Highlights included having the fireball-spitting truck next to us spouting geysers of flame while we performed Peter Schilling’s Major Tom, some operator punching instructions in to its Fisher-Price keyboard console in time to the beat. (Boy, playing next to that thing sure got hot, though!)

No photos yet, though it would have made for a killer music video.

2011-06-14: Planks open for Winnipeg’s F-Holes

Our good times have been scattered as of late, few and far between but all big, fun times (as in, occasions of large enjoyment.) Some of them have been in unorthodox formats (and for us, that’s saying something), and others have just crept up on us while we were consumed with other details (ask Airbeard about his musical Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, for instance!)

Case in point, we had a lot of fun at the Gastown Tattoo Parlour’s grand opening Sat, May 28 — one of the very, very few kinds of rooms we’d never played before. But you never found out about it until now. Well, do go check them out — even when they don’t host damnable jug bands, their ink is something quite special.

We’re not going to let tonight quite squeak on by — at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir, upstairs) from likely 9 on we’ll be opening for another of our new Manitoban friends, Winnipeg’s wholly decently-named F-Holes, delivering a heady mix of gypsy jazz, zippy dixieland, and viper blues. We’ve never played a gig east of BC, but at this rate we’ll never need to — they keep on coming to us!

Now, get your mind out of the gutter — F-holes are the resonating sound holes in stringed instruments, artily summarized in this old Man Ray 1924 print Le Violon d’Ingres:

But we threw together a poster that includes a few more details:

In short, come on down tonight and join us for an evening of getting completely F’d up!