2009-02-28: Planks at Cafe Montmartre with Erin Graves

We’re back at our monthly appearance at Cafe Montmartre (down at 4362 Main Street at 28th Avenue) with our friend Erin Graves who we met last September at Trees and resolved to do more work with.  The usual sequence of events there has us playing an opening set starting by 8:45 for 45 minutes, then our guest plays a similar set (possibly with some Planks sitting in!), then another one from us.  We play on a pass-the-hat basis, so bring some friends and a great hunger for crepes, wine and hat-filling.

…

And here we were!

Photo by Erin Graves. Daisy Jones-Locher can’t be seen just off to the left.

2008-01-16: Creaking Planks at Cafe Montmartre with Rick Keating

Last night, however well-received, was just a warm-up.  Friday night we plan to pull out everything we proudly displayed and more, with two full courses of Plankification sandwiching a very rare set by the host of the Thursday night open mic at the Little Mountain Neighborhood House, Rick Keating.  The man strums, he stomps, he puts up a godawful fuss.  And we love the bastard for it.  It’s like a primer in Folk 101, skipping right past the student exercises and landing directly in a master class where they have learned to tune their instruments and stop whining.  Doors at 8, and we should be cooking by 9… by pass-the-hat donation, at Café Montmartre (4362 Main Street at 28th).

(Thanks to Leah Nilson for taking the photo at the bottom so long ago that has now ended up on two posters!)

Update: a Plank rump (sax, fiddle + squeezebox) drummed up business a bit the night before with appearances at the Little Mountain Neighborhood House open mic and a surprise revival of the Hidden Agenda series at the Little Mountain Studios, a benefit for Sweetie Pie Press.  Aren’t their wares swell?

…

We were caught at that engagement also!

Photo by Mike David Hawley

2009-01-11: Planks and Petunia at Montmartre, redux!

The Jug Band of the Damned revisits Main Street’s little slice of Paris, Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main at 28th) courtesy once again of the western swingingest flower in the whole dagblamed garden, Petunia, sandwiching us between two sets of him playing with a small combo and featuring scattered smatterings from Al Mader, the Minimalist Jug Band — the visionary behind “Lousy Lover” and “Dead Man’s Pants”. Not to be missed!

We’ll be back there later in the week with Rick Keating, so stay tuned!

2008-11-30: Creaking Planks feature at Thundering Word Heard

Vancouver’s favorite open mic series on and off since its inception under T.Paul Ste.Marie and DJ Dutch Boy in 2001, we first featured there slightly over a year ago, following a strong reception at the BC:Clettes Rouge et Noir cabaret, and probably spent as much time trying to jockey everyone into place on the cozy stage as we did playing.  We ended up performing several times over a period of a few weeks and then totally dropped off the radar for months.  Let’s see if we can’t stagger things out a bit this time!  Thundering Word is now hosted by Bill McNamara and Wanda Nowicki, and it doesn’t just have featured performers — it’s also a fully fledged open mic!  Turn up to Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main at 28th) around 7:30 pm to sign up and you, too, could share our stage.  Though probably not while we’re on it — there’s hardly room enough for us as it is!  DJ Cassady will get you hooked up and we’ll see what spoken word / music fusion may result.  (I’m on the edge of my seat!)

We should be returning to Cafe Montmartre January 11th to be the filling in a Petunia sandwich again, but you’ll be hearing more about that closer to the date.

Edit: Bill made a new drawing to promote our appearance this night!  We only just found out about it upon arrival, but it’s a swell “Night on Bald Mountain” rendition of our “jug band of the damned” tag-line.  Stand back and enjoy!

Planks wrap up October: Parade of Lost Souls, Petunia at Montmartre

We had so much fun at Horace Phair VI that we couldn’t keep still. (Especially Scruffy Bigbass, who had a claustrophobic call of the wild in the middle of past-midnight highway construction in the vicinity of Everett.)

This year, for HPVII, with under half as many Planks on board, things were a little more sedate for us…

though Nite Brite, The Pathogens and Oven Mitts were quite literally rocking the block while everyone else drank their head off with a pint of the homebrew Budd Dwyer ale on tap.

Then our timing belt broke in Olympia on the way back, but that’s  a whole ‘nuther story (and a happy departure to a Planks tradition of strewing dead automobiles across the West Coast.)  Do you have your copy of our HPVII mix yet?

…

A week later, we hunkered down with Whiskey Jar to wish our mutual friend Wyoming Johnny a very happy birthday, and tonight, Saturday October 25th, we are letting our online following (all other locals have already made up their minds about attending this regardless of our participation) know that, following a seasonal squash-mangling, we will be logging an appearance (an earful at least) at tonight’s Parade of Lost Souls, from six to nine pm in the Black Zone (at the intersection of William and Maclean, for the living.)

Tomorrow night, Sunday Oct 26th, we take to Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street at E 28th Avenue) to join roots showman Petunia in a brief opening set around 8 pm… to be followed by a drunken pumpkin-carving contest.

And as for Hallowe’en?  Do keep posted… we have a special surprise in store.