The jug band of the damned joins forces with East Van’s political folkies in the Gram Partisans, playing a benefit for CoDevelopment Canada. Spartacus Books, 684 E. Hastings, 8-10 pm, $10.
Alex “Scruffy Bigbass” Cieslik, who once had a painting stolen while playing guitarrón with Planks at that fateful Rouge et Noir cabaret, hasn’t been seen much in a Plankian context since our Gibsons visit of June ‘09… but does have a new body of visual work ready to present to the public’s scrutiny at the old Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th Ave.) we’ve all logged so many hours into propping up. It’s been Quite Some Time (two and a half years?!) since the last time we played an art opening there, but these strange little gigs were positively fundamental in the development of the Creaking Planks. I highly recommend playing art openings on a regular basis to all new bands!
The exhibition runs from Thurs Aug 12th through Thurs Aug 26th; we will however only be performing there opening night.
For a season, from mid-December to mid-April, we temporarily lost control of our domain name (in fact, it switched off while I was in the middle of composing a promotional draft here!) and information about the Planks was unavailable from this site. We still played lots of great shows, however, and this is just an attempt to keep the historical record in order. Just because nothing turned up on the website didn’t mean that we weren’t busy little buccaneers!
2009-12-26 – the Maclean’s Boxing Day party in Deep Cove.
2010-01-06 – at Bandidas’ anniversary party.
2010-01-12 – Blackbox Squeezebeard on Melodies in Mind.
2010-01-14 – at Trees Organic Coffee.
2010-01-15 – featured at Beats on Broadway.
2010-01-16 – at One Two One Studios‘ launch.
2010-01-22 – A Night of Pleasing Squeezing with Renee de la Prade and Amber Lee Baker (the Accordion Babes), Gerry O’Brien, and Jack Garton of Maria in the Shower at Cafe Montmartre.
2010-02-26 – Dollhouse Tea Party.
2010-02-28 – Another Night of Pleasing Squeezing with Jeff Andrew, Marie-Josee Houle, Jason Webley at the LMG.
2010-03-28 – with Convertible Kids at the LMG.
2010-04-08 – with Raghu Lokanathan trio at the LMG.
2010-04-15 – Can You Hear Me Now? F*Word fundraiser at the Railway Club.
2010-04-21 – at Ubuntu LoCo at the HD Lab.
We’ve enjoyed a couple of shows since that we’ve mostly been able to keep you abreast about here, and are on the verge of splitting for the summer (one more — set aside noon, June 13th!), but before we go we can tie some Plankian threads together with a Go-Your-Own-Waste presentation of the Music Waste festival featuring frequent CP collaborators Erin Graves and Ehren Salazar with bonafide Plank Eryn Holbrook (aka Daisy Jones-Locher of the santur) and marvelous improv outsider weirdo Aaron Read at the traditional Plank venue of the Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th at Main). This Friday, June 4th! Only $5, and free for festival passholders! 8 pm ’til we’re done! The most homophonic bill of the year: Erin, Ehren, Eryn and Aaron in Err On: the Side of Caution. It’ll be a slice. (Actually, imagine a pizza divided into four slices, all of which are different flavours, and at least one slice of which isn’t even pizza… but maybe apple pie.)
… Saturday, February 14th (yep, that’s valentine’s day)
… @ the Secret Location
… doors at 9pm
… show from 10pm onwards:
… performances by the creaking planks, manpuss, and others
… arts and crafts auction
… dance party featuring dj derivative and more
… entrance by donation
Sir Hobbes the Cat, the noble friend, roommate, attorney, confidant and stalwart of Vancouver nightlife passed away recently. He lived a long and uncompromising life and will live on in the hearts of those he knew as one of the most familiar, most admired, most beloved, and, without any doubt the most extraordinary of cats.
You are invited to a celebration for Hobbes and all cats: A night of performance, art auction, and dance party on February 14th at the Secret Location.
All proceeds go to help Mosa with her vet bills.
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