On Thursday night my buddies, Hurl, Buzzard, Erin, Janis, Cuz and I made our way to the Mercury Room here in Edmonton to see the Mike Plume Band in concert. This was my eighth time seeing him in concert and again another amazing performance by Mike Plume.
Opening the show was Mike Plume's wife Jenny O with Mike's band backing her up. Her forty minute set was good. Her music was on the folk side with some good lyrics and her on guitar.
Jenny O at the Mercury Room.
After Jenny's set it was time for the Mike Plume Band. This was the first Edmonton date in two years the last time being at the Interstellar Rodeo Festival in 2013. The Mercury Room was packed by the time Mike hit the stage, not sure what capacity is for this small intimate venue, but my guess would be a couple hundred people packing the place, the show was sold out.
Mike and his band which is Ernie Basiliadis on drums, whom has been with Mike since the get go which is twenty some years, Ben Wilson on bass, Jenny Orenstein on acoustic and I don't recall the names of the steel guitar player or keyboard player, sorry, the band sounded great. Mike looked and sounded to be in good spirits on this evening having imbibed in the spirits through out the show. Mike sings with such emotion that he actually teared up a few times during the night, with him joking that it was allergies. One of them tear up moments was during his tribute song to the late great Stompin' Tom Connors (So Long Stompin' Tom) when he sang the lyrics "A million drunken angels are singing with you tonight, and when you see my mom down in the front row, could you tell her I'm doing alright" those lyrics have always brought a tear to my eye as well. An incredible and beautiful song about one of my favorite artists ever. The only thing Mike missed on this song was the stomping at the very end.
His two hour show was just one great song after another, lots of Mike's songs are full of Canadian references, very Canadiana. Some of the songs he played on this evening were Live It Up Until They Lower Me Down, Hey Hey What'd You Say (Coming Home) a song in which the whole audience was singing along, that was super cool, Red And White Blues and Alcohol. At one point during the show Mike had said jokingly "write down your request on a twenty dollar bill and I'll play it. Well it didn't take long before someone actually did that, putting a twenty in his mic stand and requesting a song, that followed by yet another person, before you knew it, it was happening often. That's when Mike said all the money would go to a youth charity, that was an awesome gesture, so that continued through out the show. Janis and I both donated, with Janis requesting 830 Newfoundland, and me requesting Keeping Time With The Telephone Poles, and of course both songs got played.
There was lots of interaction with the audience all night which made for some very funny moments, some not so politically correct. You cold tell Mike and the band were having a blast at the show, which is something I always like to see at a show when the band is having as much fun as the crowd. Another great song he did was his hockey song called More Than A Game, which to me is the best song wrote about hockey after Stompin' Tom's of course.
This was am amazing night of music and good times. My intentions on this night was to take it easy as I had to work the following morning, but when your having that much fun, I got wrapped up in the good times which made for a long day of work on Friday. It was well worth it though. Can't wait for the Mike Plume Band to come back through town, hopefully soon. Good times!!!
Mike Plume Band at the Mercury Room.
T-shirt.
Another really cool part of the show was Mike's song Me And Ern which is in tribute of his long time drummer Ernie, done to the Willie Nelson song Me And Paul. Mike shed a tear during this song as well.
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