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!

2009-08-08: Creaking Planks with Raghu Lokanathan and the Joey Only Outlaw Band at Cafe Deux Soleils

Having been exposed to his striking work at ArtsWells past, when the Creaking Planks learned that songwriter Raghu Lokanathan had moved from Prince George down to Victoria we just had to invite him to do a show with us there, which went off like a house on fire back in early 2008.  He helped us with some travel complications as best he could as well as delivering an immaculate set.  Now another ArtsWells is upon us and immediately following, this musical man will be in our general vicinity (featuring at the Jericho Folk Club Tuesday August 4th as well as on the Accordion Noir radio show Friday Aug 7th from 9:30-10:30 pm.)  (And here that radio session is!)  Needless to say, we’re champing at the bit to present him to the hairy hippies of East Van, and have dovetailed a couple of plans in order to do so the evening of Saturday, August 8th, at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive).  The Planks will be tasty sandwich filling in the middle, followed by a dense slice of psychedelic country punk from the Joey Only Outlaw Band!

A tip o’ the hat to postermeister Daisy-Jones Locher!

2008-10-03: the Creaking Planks close the 1st annual Accordion Noir festival of Squeeze!

With all September’s transitions, we’ve been a bit out of sorts recently, as a result of which some of our recent performances have slipped past without being commemorated here, including a three day spree — this year’s community circus at the Four Sisters Co-Op (Sat Sept 13th), the start of a new GoGo season at Hoko’s with Francis Mantis and the Sun Aristocrats  (Sun Sept 14th), and a monthly cultural night at the Cedar Cottage Community Garden (Mon Sept 15th)… plus another great evening at Trees Fri Sept 5th at which some of our number sat in with Erin Graves! ( — an impromptu backup stint that can be witnessed through Youtube videos.)

But that’s not what this post is about!  Not catching up, but boldly bounding forward, like a hell-bent golden retriever hurtling lemming-like off a cliff in pursuit of a glowing tennis ball.  (But not quite as, y’know, ominous.)  Squeezebeard Blackbox’s weekly side project Accordion Noir, the world’s only all-accordion radio show / podcast, is putting on the first annual Accordion Noir Festival of Squeeze… mainstage performances from 9 pm on at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir at Seymour, upstairs) Friday, October 3rd! Admission should be in the vicinity of $10, a bit less for Railway Club members.  The Planks will be giddily closing the night sometime after midnight!  (And please, dismiss those nepotistic thoughts from your head — we were hand-picked by festival headliner Geoff Berner, the man who first inspired Squeezebeard to pick up his blackbox, along with Amy Denio from Seattle and Natasha Enquist from Victoria, making this a Pacific Northwest summit of sorts.)

For your entertainment, education, edification, and for interior decorating purposes, here is its poster:

… and here is an audio promo for the festival!  For further synergy, the Planks will be sitting in on the episode to be broadcast Friday, September 26th, in order to promote the festival to local listeners with (as before) some live performance on the air.  We should be audible during the show’s typical runtime, from 9:30-10:30 pm Friday night on CFRO 102.7 fm CO-OP Community Radio… or, for those of you who plan to be huddling in concrete bunkers deep underground, on their audio stream. (For those who enjoy deciphering cryptic filenames, it should also turn up for a couple of days after broadcast in their mp3 archives… and several weeks later on the AN site 8) (Edit: and here it is!  A short set, a small Plankian turn-out… but still a good time!)

…

Natasha Enquist caught us in action!

Squeezebeard feels it would be remiss were we not to mention, as does the poster, that the Railway show is actually only the second day of the festival, which opens 7 pm the previous night Thursday Sept 2nd at Spartacus Books’ new location (684 E. Hastings at Heatley and no, it doesn’t just sound familiar — I knew we’d find a way to play at that site again!  It’s Gabe’s old Gaff Gallery!) and will include not only hot live performances by real squeezeboxers (and not just him! as is so often the case at the monthly squeezebox circle regularly held at that place and time) but Bruce’s pet project the accordion fashion show and a 9 pm screening of the Accordion Tribe movie. (5-minute teaser trailer!)

(For posterity’s sake, though it’s long since been forgotten in the post’s narrative, here is the poster from our Trees show.  Since we always have such a nice time there, we should be back like clockwork in six months’ time, March 6th 2009!)