As an experiment into filling a whole night at Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street at 28th Avenue) with varied textures of performance from members of our multifarious crew and extended family, the Creaking Planks celebrate Blackbox Squeezebeard entering into his fourth decade with the April (Ship of) Fools Variety Show from 8 pm through “late” (past midnight!) Saturday, April 4th. Performances will include magic from Travis, interstitial improvisation and ukulele from Ehren Salazar and John Barbour, new music from familiar faces Paul Hendriks (aka the Rev. Lucian Rumblebucket), possibly demonstrating his banjo aptitude, and Eryn Holbrook (aka Daisy Jones-Locher — who worked a wonderful whimsical adaptation of Hieronymus Bosch’s “Ship of Fools” into the show’s poster!) contributing a solo set a couple of months earlier than usual, sharing her voice-and-keys songwriting not much heard since the days of her Perpetual Dream Theory project. Also joining us will be a very special set from washtub bass outsider Al Mader, the Minimalist Jug Band, and of course a couple of sets of Creaking Planks creaking and planking.
At Montmartre we play for tips, but we anticipate your generosity in support of this jam-packed night and its auspicious occasion.
Licking its hard-earned wounds from the recent critical success at the Waterfront Theatre, the series resumes at the Little Mountain Studios (195 E. 26th at Main) presenting its varied music and comedy variety show, now on a monthly basis.
Acts this time around include the Planks, Stick Twigs, the unique improvised musical stylings of host EC Salazar, & more acts to be announced…
Salazar intones fatefully: “there may very well be multi colored balloons.”
The crew that put the icing on the cake of Obama’s inauguration party at Zawa’s is back again in a new room, the Purple Crab (3916 Main Street at 23rd), with fewer pesky televised distractions (however historical) cluttering up the performance schedule. (That crew being: Thee Ahs aka Lovenschtein and Schteige, Sister DJ’s Radio Band, and a closing set from us.) All that, plus: a set of magic from Dr. Steelhand, in honour of Sister DJ’s descent from the namesake of Mandrake the Magician!
Last month we bore witness to a surprising revival of a long-dormant variety show series, Ehren Salazar’s HIDDEN AGENDA, resurrected on three days’ notice as a benefit for our old pal Becky of Sweetie Pie Press. Formerly the series largely took place at Wink, with sporadic upswellings at the Butchershop Floor and, later, its scion the Little Mountain Studios. Not this time, though. We’ve decided to shoot for the stars and take advantage of a good price on one of Vancouver’s classic rooms, booting the event right out of the LMS backroom and booking the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island (1412 Cartwright Street).
And what will we be presenting at that theatre, well you might ask? Not only is Aaron Read joined by the Sunday Service’s genuises of comic improv, not only will Anna Vandas be making sweet music, NOT ONLY are the Creaking Planks also on board… but the event will also be featuring screenings from 2008’s Animatron festival of animation. All that plus handy hosting by Ehren “Monster Dinosaur” Salazar and, who knows, perhaps some special guests.
Doors are at 7:30, with the show beginning promptly at 8 pm; admission is $12 at the door or $10 with a food bank donation.
Winters in Vancouver can be a gloomy, dreary affair. Even when we’re not snowbound and strangled by insidious mists (as we have been for weeks, now!) one can go for days, weeks and, yea, even months without seeing the sun. This contributes to a depressing psychological condition known as SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is often treated with exposure to a full-spectrum daylight lamp. Another treatment recommended by holistic and alternative health practitioners is exposure to AWESOME FACE. AWESOME FACE? AWESOME FACE is a local (or is that loco?) power performance poetry supergroup consisting of charismatic weirdoes par excellenceRC Weslowski, Brendan McLeod and Chris Gilpin (as Dr. WTF??) With a mandate as “the kids’ show for adults”, for their sophomore engagement at 9 pm this Friday they have boldly proclaimed a goal of nothing less than combating SAD. Poet Sasha Langford demonstrates:
Their method of engaging SAD is to throw a beach party at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive). As such, the wearing of beachwear is encouraged, and will reduce admission from $8 to $5. Sasha demonstrates further:
To further audience involvement, AWESOME FACE have solicited contributions from their fans as lyrics for a new song, to be performed at this event, describing Jet Li kicking SAD’s ass (egregiously) at the beach. Similarly, the Planks, who are opening for this crew of well-intentioned miscreants, and whose greatest talent is inverting a song’s emotional content, aim to rustle up some lines from our fans also. The trademark macabre CP rendition of summer camp classic “Down By The Bay” debuted at Blackbox’s first performance as a Plank, at Miserylovescompany2: A night of sad songs at the old Blim April 23rd, 2005… and has only been performed likely once since (at that year’s Horace Phair celebration in Portland.) But in honour of the occasion we are digging deep into the vaults and pulling out an array of splendid tunes to relish in our love/hate relationship with SAD. If you could put on your thinking cap and send us your best faux-grim couplet for Down By The Bay (a sample from Lord Eel: “Have you ever seen a corpse / stabbed with ten thousand forks?”) we would find it most useful.
Also joining us will be a display of the ever-boggling talents of legerdemain and mentalism from the Planks’ steel guitarist, Dr. Steelhand.
