On March 19th Buzzard, Cuz, Janis and I went to see Mike Plume play at the Temple in Edmonton, the show was originally supposed to be at the Starlite Room but was moved to the smaller venue in the same building, the Temple. Not enough tickets sold to fill the Starlite Room, which is a shame as Mike should be selling out that room, but nonetheless, this was a great room to see Mike perform in. Intimate and the right size for the crowd that was there. This would be my 27th time seeing Mike in concert.
The evening started with local artist Sean Davis Newton. Sean is not only a songwriter but also a producer, recording engineer and podcaster. He recently just released an album called Bird Brain. An album about birds, ya weird I know. Sean played a 30 minute set that seemed to go over pretty good with the audience. Weird quirky folk style music.
After a short break it was time for Mike Plume. Mike was on fire this night, a two hour long set with just him and his guitar. I have seen Mike a lot of times live solo and with his band, but this show was my second favourite solo show I have seen him play. My favourite being the time I saw him play at Lana Lou's in Vancouver. It had been a year and a half since I last saw Plume in concert, with him now living in Ontario we don't get to see him quite as often, which is a bummer, but man this show was so fucking good!
With this show being over a week ago now, I can't recall what he opened with, I do know it wasn't his usual opening song "My Old Friend", that was the second song on this night. As per usual, Mike sounded great and his guitar playing was awesome too, and his stories were very entertaining with humour mixed in. he could have played for three hours and there would still be songs I wish he would have played. But his setlist for this night was awesome. Fan favourites like "8:30 Newfoundland (This Is Our Home)", this song could easily be Canada's second National Anthem. Another fan favourite played was "More Than A Game" the best hockey song ever wrote in my opinion, with all due respect to Stompin' Tom Connors. Why this song doesn't or didn't get all kinds of airplay during the Four Nations Tournament is beyond me. Speaking of Stompin' Tom, Mike also told a great story about writing and performing his tribute song "So Long Stompin' Tom" at his funeral and playing the song.
Other songs played were "Big American Headliner" from his 1997 album Simplify. So many good lines in this song, love singing along to this one, as I do all of his songs. Mike also did some songs from his album Song And Dance, Man, which was also released in 1997. One of them songs being "Oblivion" which is an awesome song. Another great song played was "Steel Belted Radio" a song about how radio should be, not like the formatted crap we get now from commercial radio. In this song he name drops so many great artists, and Mike always changes it up, this time dropping the name of his wife and artist Jenny Orenstein in the mix. Speaking of family, Mike also talked about his daughter Ruby Plume who is also a musician playing a couple of songs that are about her, like the song "Dance Ruby, Dance" and "Mama's Rolling Stone" from his 2018 album Born By The Radio. Mike also told a great story about when Ruby went off to college in the USA and do music. He mentioned making a bracelet for her , and in this bracelet he had the letter WWDD180 (what would Dad do, 180), well do a 180 and do the exact opposite of what dad would do or say, that got a good laugh from the audience. Another song he played was "Waiting For The Fall" which I thought was a new song at first as I have only heard him play that song once before.
I could go on and on about other songs, but I'll stop here. Oh no I won't. One more song to talk about, and that would be the song he ended his set with, a song done acapella style, a song I have heard him do a few times, and I finally figured it out. A song by The Specials called "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)", and I only figured that because a few days after the show I happened to be listening to The Specials and heard the song and was like, holy fuck, that's the songs Mike closed his set out with.
This was such an awesome night of music, stories, good company, great venue (thanks for the seat Mike), an amazing audience, great atmosphere and whole lot of fucking fun singing along to so many great tunes. A Mike Plume show always brings a smile to my face and makes me feel better for days after. Can't wait to see you again Mike. Good times!!!
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