Friday night my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Joel Plaskett concert at a new venue here in Edmonton called The Needle Vinyl Tavern. This show was part of the grand opening weekend. Not only was I excited about seeing Joel Plaskett play a solo show, but was also looking forward to checking out the new venue. Edmonton has lost a few venues in the past year, but it's nice to see that there have been new ones popping up around town, always a good thing. There was a lot of hype about this new venue The Needle, as it's downtown in the old CKUA building (click here to read about the station) so the old building has a lot of history too it housing the radio station for many years. And this venue is one of the bigger ones that have opened, holding 500 for a show. The Needle is also promising live music seven days a week. And the floor downstairs where the washrooms are is an all vinyl floor.
Anyways, we got to the show early as we weren't sure what to expect, but surprisingly, no line up to get in as the place was packed already The Needle offer all kinds of food and craft beers. First thing I noticed walking in was, where the hell is the stage. After slinking our way through all kinds of people, as the bar and the seating for the restaurant is real close together, makes it tough to get around the place. We walked to the back of the place and found the main stage, it's in the back of the place and the area seemed small as did the stage. Good thing lots of people didn't mind sitting where you can't see the stage, cause there is no way 500 people are going to fit into the main stage area.
We got there in time to catch the opener Borscht, who was also playing solo on this night. By being solo it was just Maria Elena Martire as there usually is a drummer that plays with her. I had never heard of them before but was there to check it out. Have to say, it didn't take us too long before we decided to fight through the crowd and step out for a smoke.
Borscht.
Next up was Joel Plaskett, this was my sixth time seeing Joel in concert and third time in the past year. This was the first time I had seen Joel Plaskett playing solo. By the time Joel hit the stage the place was packed, and now having a few beers in me and being in the venue for a while, I was starting to warm up to it. That, and a friendly staff member told me about another bar hidden in the back that wasn't near as busy, huge bonus.
What can you say that I haven't said in previous reviews of Joel's shows, he fucking rocks, even just solo there were times it sounded like a band playing with him. he switched between electric and acoustic through out the night. Even pulling out the keyboard to do a song. Some of the songs I remember him doing, I really need to write my review quicker as I don't recall a lot of them. What I do remember were Park Avenue Sobriety Test, Extraordinary, Work Out Fine, Through & Through & Through, Alright/OK, Rollin', Rollin', Rollin', North Star, Fashionable People, Drunk Teenagers, Song For Jersey, Love This Town it was just before this song where Joel told a great story about back in the day with his first band Thrush Hermit playing the Rebar here in Edmonton when a member of the band was drunk and took the breathalyzer machine off the wall of the bar. No one noticed til they were driving to the next gig when they realized what he had done, they then broke it open and much to their surprise got a 150 dollars from it, so the band ate good for a day or two. Joel also did three new songs on this night, which were all great, can't wait for him to put out a new album. An awesome couple of hours of music by Joel Plaskett with a sold out crowd singing along. Good times!!!
Joel Plaskett at The Needle Vinyl Tavern.
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