March 11th

  My ticket, which is lame as it's just a print out, no hard copy for this one. Joel Plaskett March 11th, 2016 at The Needle Vinyl Tavern in Edmonton. This was the grand opening weekend for this venue. A short lived venue though, sadly. It was then reopened as the Station On Jasper and now it s called the Double Dragon. At least it's still a live music venue sometimes.

January 23rd

  It was on January 23rd, 2017 that I saw Joel Plaskett perform with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the Winspear Centre in Edmonton. Such an amazing show, wish this could be a live album.

May 14th

  May 14th, 2009 I saw Joel Plaskett with Family & Friends play McDougall United Church in Edmonton. This was my first time seeing Joel Plaskett in concert and what an awesome show, a three hour long show, which makes sense as he was touring for his triple album called Three.

May 9th

 

 May 9th, 2015 I saw Joel Plaskett Emergency play Union Hall here in Edmonton.

September 15th

  

 On September 15th, 2022 I saw the Joel Plaskett Emergency in concert at the Starlite Room in Edmonton. This show was originally booked for the Myer Horowitz Theatre but was moved to the Starlite because of renovations.

April 19th

  

 Back on April 19th, 2012 I got to see Joel Plaskett Emergency with opening act English musician Frank Turner play the Winspear Centre in Edmonton. Joel would have been on tour for his Scrappy Happinees album. Such a great double bill.

Joel Plaskett Emergency Live in Edmonton September 15th 2022

Yet another show that I had tickets for a couple of years because of Covid restrictions. Joel Plaskett Emergency were originaly scheduled to play the Myer Horowitz Theatre but ended up being moved to the Starlite Room. This would be my 10th time seeing Joel in concert. It's always nice to see Joel with his band Emergency. I went to this show with Buzzard and Cuz. Joel Plaskett was on tour to promot his 2020 album 44 a four record set he had released. I have to say I wasn't and still am not a big fan of that record. Joel did two sets on this night, with the first set being a lot of songs from the 44 album. I was hoping the songs would be better live, but they weren't. So I was feeling kind of let down after the first set, but the second set got much better with Joel and band playing a lot of the older stuff which made up for the first set. All and all it was a good show. Joel Plaskett Emergency.

Thrush Hermit Live in Edmonton October 11th 2019

My buddy Buzzard and I went to the Thrush Hermit concert at the Starlite Room a few weeks ago. Thrush Hermit is a band from Halifax, Nova Scotia formed back in 1992 by Joel Plaskett. Thrush Hermit released to two full length albums Sweet Homewrecker and Clayton Park and a handful of EP's. Sadly the band disbanded in 1999 not long after the release of Clayton Park. I never did get to see Thrush Hermit in concert, but with the release of the 20th anniversary edition Clayton Park on vinyl, the band reformed and toured across Canada. I was very happy to get the Clayton Park album on vinyl on Record Store Day, then not long after when the band announced the cross country tour, now I was super stoked to finally get to see these guys perform live.

When I heard about the show I asked my buddy if he wanted to go see Joel Plaskett's old band in concert. With Buzzard being a big fan of Joel Plaskett as well, he was in. He didn't realize until the night of the show that Joel Plaskett was actually in the band and would be playing. He thought I had meant just seeing his old back up band.

What a fucking show this was, in my top shows of the year for sure. Thrush Hermit which is Joel Plaskett on guitar and vocals, Rob Benvie on guitar and vocals, Cliff Gibb on drums and Ian McGettigan on bass and vocals hit the stage with Ian balancing his three string bass on his nose (wish I had got a picture of that) and off they went into playing the Clayton Park album in it's entirety with the old neon Rock & Roll sign lit up behind them. Joel started the first song just on vocals, which was funny to see as Joel has always got the guitar strapped on. The band was incredibly tight with some cool jams thrown into the songs, they were certainly firing on all cylinders. This was the 11th show of their 14 date tour and man were they rocking. I would love to have been able to see this show a few more times. After playing all of Clayton Park they did some older songs "North Dakota", "On The Sneak" and "Strange To Be Involved" from Sweet Homewrecker. Plus a couple of songs "French Inhale" and "Patriot" from their EP's Smart Bomb and The Great Pacific Ocean. That was an hour and a half all out rock n' roll. It was awesome to see Joel ripping it up on the electric guitar again. The last couple of times I've seen him in concert they have been solo acoustic shows. An incredible show!!!

Thrush Hermit at the Starlite Room.

Opening the show was Shotgun Jimmie from Brandon, Manitoba. Jimmie is a one man show playing guitar, drum and vocals. His songs come across as personal and quirky. His set was pretty good but I was so excited about seeing Thrush Hermit that I had a hard time getting into his music.

Shotgun Jimmie at the Starlite Room.

Bill & Joel Plaskett Live in Edmonton Dec.6th 2018

Last week Janis, Buzzard and I went to the Bill & Joel Plaskett show at the Myer Horowitz Theatre. This would be my ninth time seeing Joel Plaskett in concert. Bill & Joel were playing two shows in Alberta to cap off their Solidarity tour. Solidarity being the name of the album that Joel and his Dad Bill put out in February of 2017. The tour didn't come through Alberta when they originally did the tour as Joel had done a few shows with the Edmonton and Calgary Orchestras. So I really wasn't expecting to see the two of them perform together. But much to my surprise JCL Productions brought the two of them to town for a show.

Opening the show was the Mayhemingways, who are a folk duo from Peterborough, Ontario. Benj Rowland does lead vocals and plays an array of instruments from acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo and accordion all the while playing bass on a guitar pedal, part two of the duo is Josh Fewings on drums and harmony vocals. I had never heard them before but thought they were pretty damn good. A couple song titles I recall them playing were "Bad Old Days" and "Frances The Truck", both were good. Overall I enjoyed their set.

Mayhemingways.

Next up was Bill and Joel Plaskett. I always enjoy seeing Joel in concert as he is a great songwriter, guitar player and always entertaining. I had seen his dad Bill play in Joel's band once before when Joel came through town in 2009 on his tour for the album Three.

This show started with just the two of them playing about a half dozen songs together, which of course included a few songs from the Solidarity album. The only problem with this show is that they struggled with monitor problems through out the show, but they soldiered on and still put on a wicked show. After the first six or so songs it was time for Joel Plaskett to play some songs by himself.

A couple of the songs that Bill and Joel did from the Solidarity album were, the title song, "Dragonfly", "Blank Cheque" and "On Down The River". Joel's solo songs were great too, with im playing a rare acoustic version of "Drunk Teenagers", "Ashtray Rock" and "Fashionable People" from his Ashtray Rock album, and a good selection of songs from his Three album "Rollin', Rollin, Rollin", "Pine, Pine, Pine", "Wishful Thinking", "Through, Through, Through" and "Deny, Deny, Deny".

Other songs played were "I'm Yours", "I Love This Town", oh man I wish I could remember them all. He did play one new song I believe was called "Memory Complete Me". So many great songs in this two hour show. For the last part of the show he had the Mayhemingways join them for about 6 songs. All in all this was a great show. Good times!!!

Bill and Joel Plaskett.

Joel Plaskett with The ESO January 23rd 2017

On Monday night Janis, Char, Buzzard and I went to the Joel Plaskett with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra concert at the Winspear Centre here in Edmonton. This was my eighth time seeing Joel in concert and one where I wasn't sure what to expect.

Joel Plaskett was in Alberta for two shows only one here in Edmonton with the ESO and then in Calgary the following night playing with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. So this was going to be a rare show and one off kind of event.

The show started with the ESO getting warmed up by playing the Ian Tyson song "Four Strong Winds", then a medley of Gordon Lightfoot songs. The conductor for the evening was a fellow Nova Scotian by the name of Martin MacDonald. Joel's opening song of the night was "Harbour Boys" from his Scrappy Happiness album. Joel admitted several times during the course of the night about how nervous he was about the show with the symphony. Having never been out to see the ESO, I was nervous as well, but with Joel's quirkiness, shuffles and his between song banter I was feeling more comfortable as the show went on as did Joel.

What was nice is that the whole show wasn't just Joel with the ESO, he also did a few songs solo, and a few songs with Peter Elkas on guitar and piano. One of the songs Joel did "Old Friends" was dedicated to Peter as they have been long time friends having met back when Joel toured with his 90's band Thrush Hermit, it was while in Montreal that he met Peter who used to be in the band Local Rabbits. Joel also had drummer Mark Inneo playing these two Alberta shows with him. But it was really about the 50-60 musicians that make up the ESO were backing Joel up. I tried counting how many there were but never did get an accurate count, over 50 for sure.

I thought Joel and had great setlist for the type of show he was playing. Some of the songs were "North Star", "Park Avenue Sobriety Test" which had a great sing-a-long, "Love This Town", "Nowhere With You" and a solo version of "Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'," which had the whole crowd stomping and clapping along to the song, "When I Close My Eyes", "Lying On A Beach"," I'm Yours".

Joel Plaskett and The ESO did two sets on this night. The second set started with the ESO warming up playing a medley of Procol Harum songs, which makes sense seeing as Procol Harum and The ESO played together in 1971 and released a live album in 1972. After that it was back to more awesomeness with Joel Plaskett. The highlight of the night for me was the version Joel and the ESO did of the song "Lightning Bolt" to close out the second half, wow, just fucking incredible. I would love to see that song released as a single, or perhaps a live album of the whole show. But that song was amazing, the way the orchestra and Joel mixed together. The ESO certainly rocked the hell out on that one.

Joel ended the evening with a poem called "Just Because (For Gord Downie)", Joel went on to tell a story about opening for the Tragically Hip on a nation wide tour back in 90's. And you could tell that Joel has nothing but the utmost respect for Gord and The Hip. At the merch booth they had ten inch singles of the song, which sold out at the show. All proceeds from the single are going to the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund.

After the poem Joel came out for an encore but be damned if I can recall right now what the hell it was he played. This was an amazing show. Good times!!!

Joel Plaskett with The ESO.

Ten Inch Single.