We must have made a good impression last month, since we’ve been invited back to play the same party again! (The “Velofusion” Critical Mass afterparty at the ANZA Club, 3 W. 8th at Ontario.) So to make up for past misdeeds, we’re going to play the exact same set, but entirely in reverse — undoing everything we did previously!  We’ll pay for our stage time, dancers will lift their stomps right off the dancefloor and everyone will spit fountains of beer back into their little red plastic cups.  What do you mean that’s crazy talk? I think it’s a great idea!  But, admittedly, perhaps one whose time has not yet come.  OK, you won me over — we’ll mix things up with some different players and different charts, but don’t think that the mere passage of Hallowe’en can hold back the Song of the Count!  The Planks set is slated for ~9-10 pm.

The Orkestar Slivovica must have done something good last month also, since they’ve been invited back, too!  It’ll be like a little reunion.  Oh, how much can change over the course of 30 days!  Also taking the stage that night are The Heard, Vital Divine, and DJ sets from Bee Winter and Adrian Blackhurst’s global funk & Balkan beats!  The proceedings are fundraising this time around for Spartacus Books, the little anarchist bookstore that could, not only home to Squeezebeard’s monthly “57 Varieties” open stage and Vancouver’s only Esperantist group but also the ultimate wellspring for Accordion Noir! Admission is $10, but only $5 if you arrive with the Critical Mass.

What with our tremendous success last time around we figured that we’d be a shoe-in for next year’s (May) Pirate Critical Mass afterparty and that we’d be hearing back from the (pedal-)powers that be at that point.  Perhaps remembering our Zombiewalk introduction into Vancouver, they’ve seen fit, however, to invite us back to join them for the Velofusion party this month on Hallowe’en!  (We are the Jug Band of the Damned, after all.  We’re humbled and flattered, but I hope they don’t think that this Squeezebeard is just a costume merkin!)  Things get underway around 8 pm, with admission stated as $10 or $5 if you arrive with the Critical Mass in costume!

Other performances slated for the evening include our hornier separated-at-birth pseudo-sibling band Blackberry Wood, the Balkan marching band the Orkestar Slivovica, Miss Titty Kitty (come now, that name speaks for itself — but let’s not forget just how many titties kitties have!), a final performance from the full slate of Inject before percussionist Amrit parts ways to tour around India… and, rumour has it, a host of ghostly folks who really know how to dance along to Thriller.  (A further rumour, depending on weather conditions and the wonderful impaired judgment of the mob mentality, has proposed a late-night naked costume bicycle ride.  One thing we don’t have, folks, is boring gigs.)

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Also, we had a great time at the Parade of Lost Souls Saturday then also at Montmartre Sunday night with Petunia (and then another great time in Strathcona with Alison and a hot bowl of her bors… I mean, blood soup.) We should be back there soon, and I don’t just mean for our Thundering Word feature spot November 30th!

Next up — Zawa’s on Tuesday Nov 4th with Sister DJ’s Radio Band, but more about that later!

In the run-up to Bike Month, aka “June” to the uninitiated, the month of May in these parts always features a pirate-themed Critical Mass (”Critical Mast”) group bicycle ride (– they’re not blocking traffic, they ARRRR traffic!) … And who better to play its monthly “Velofusion” afterparty than Vancouver’s pre-eminent pirate band?

Further contributing to our “good fit” for this long-considered show, proceeds raised through tonight’s celebrations will go to benefit Free Geek Vancouver, the Portland-emmigrated free software e-waste solution who we’re considered the “house band” of (experts, after all, in the field of salvaging further use from old trash.) Though the particulars are still technically up in the air, if this month’s installment is anything like its predecessors, there is likely a $10 admission ($5 for Critical Mass participants) and the bill is very likely to contain some DJ-fueled dancing madness (oho, Timothy Wisdom!) spilling out on to the ANZA Club floor… so get ready to strap on your pegs and patches and prepare to shiver timbers and discover booty as we make you walk the Plank!

(As a special bonus, click on the thumbnail for the general Critical Mass poster. It’s really quite charmingly whimsical!  Also on tap now: FreeGeek’s own poster for the event!  A bit more explicit and inclusive than ours — but they knew more than we did

Also a special greeting and thanks to our friends in Portland for a thrilling moustache party weekend! Cheers also to the folks at Bex’s crashed BBQ — two kegs of homebrew and a Balkan band make up for any license taken with the +1s.