some of my favorite Plaskett-y goodness to keep you going through this one:
Soooo, happy belated Canada Day. I really haven't been keeping up on here, but forgive me. IRL (in real life) I'm just too busy and having a pretty good time.
Anyways, yesterday marked my fourth Joel Plaskett show. He was playing a free one (and not headlining! wtf? how do you go from opening for Paul freakin' McCartney to not even headlining a Canada Day show in your hometown? go figure) at Alderney Landing, where I saw him play last summer. The barriers put us further back this time around, and the people sitting down from earlier shows in the day put us off the left and near the eight huge speakers on that side, so we didn't exactly have the best seats (stands?) in the house.
Some "fuck-you's" to hand out while I'm on the subject though. If you're old and wearing a jean jacket and sitting on a white lawn chair (that evidently by the end of the show I found out wasn't even yours?), you and your friend might wanna get up and either go to the back and just chill, or get out of the way. But, thank you ever so much for creating a 10-foot circle where no one was going near or around you guys, given the fact you smelled kinda bad and looked just a little more than a tad creepy. And thank you to my choice of standing that left me at some points almost in the laps of said guys.
But it didn't stop there. Token really drunk guy who's having more fun that anyone else is or should be having? You get one. Spraying the rest of your Faxe (yes, piss-like Faxe) beer on everyone around you was a real class act. So was calling over the tween to come and dance, then moseying your way over to the other group of teens (you were at least 19 remember) for the same purpose. You were good for a few laughs though: nothing was funnier than you grabbing the grey-haired man who tossed your then-empty beer can over the rails...and proceeding to seemingly whisper sweet nothings in his ear, and possibly kissing him sloppily on the cheek...more than once it looked like.
Finally, a big "fuck you" to the puddle I was standing near. I was splashed by beat-stomping feet on occasion, and you made me overly conscious of my un-pants-enabled legs for the entire show. Overall, not the most comfortable I've been at a concert...and I've been three-layers-soaked-to-the-bone-for-hours-upon-hours at The Rolling Stones, so well done.
With all bitching aside...the show was actually pretty bitching. Very similar to the set I saw of his at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium last month, in terms of the songs he played, but he mixed up the order a bit. Some of the same banter was there, but he knew he wasn't playing to a captive, seated audience, so he kept it upbeat and succinct.
He sadly doesn't play a lot of Ashtray Rock anymore, which bums me out because that's when I really started obsessing about Joel's music. No "Face Of The Earth," no "Nothing More To Say" (aside from a depressing and acoustic turn he did with his father at the Cohn) and most definitely no "Drunk Teenagers," which I don't suppose he'll play at any more shows, possibly ever. He still plays "Fashionable People," but there's something slightly off about it, and it feels a tad stuffy and forced.
He did play many of his older ones though, and you can tell they're still his live staples; nearly everyone knew the words, and in Joel's loveable way, he joked about him not even having to sing anymore. For fun, the people I was going to the concert with put together a list of songs we thought he would/wanted to see him play, and luckily enough, we went about 7 for 8. He played most of the three-themed songs off his amazing new Three, and Rose Cousins and Ana Egge were there to add their catchy harmonies to the whole affair.
On a side note, the new stuff is admittedly less immediate, but they'll definitely grow on everyone and become great sing-a-longs like his other regulars. My only complaint is that along with the lack of immediacy, there's not much of a "rock" lilt to his music anymore; there's a lot of East Coast influence and everything from saxophone to trumpets, but none of that crunching guitar and soaring choruses. Joel's always been hard to class other than "singer-songwriter," and he became even more of an enigma with the concept-driven Ashtray Rock, but before that you could really hear his rock influences shine through, and he was much easier to pigeon-hole into genres. Now with the 27 songs off Three, he's all over the place, and while it works for most of it, there's definitely some filler in there, and some overall questionable choices of direction.
Back to the show, the closer "On and On and On" was interrupted by the Canada Day fireworks, and you could see people were torn between the band and the sky's sights. Even when Joel and The Emergency wrapped it up, there was a warm moment of them standing there watching the fireworks with the rest of us, bathed in blue light and the surrounding darkness, not rushing off-stage, and though a good five or six feet above us, down to our level of "spectators" at the sight of the colourful bursts of celebration.
The overall feel of the concert was strange, because with the combination of people who had been at the venue for the previous acts and others who were seated during the show, there didn't seem to be that common camraderie between everyone that really fuels a concert-going experience and usually justifies dishing out the dough to see a show instead of relaxing to the artist in the comfort of your own abode. Not one of the better shows I've seen (possibly the worst of the four based on atmosphere alone), but since it's Joel Plaskett, I really can't say anything too bad. The man is immune to my criticism.
...oh, and he could've dragged his poor, earless cat White Fang up on stage and did some Ozzy Osbourne-ish things to it and still would've received a good review from me for one reason: after the show and the fireworks, the crew started setting up for the follow-up act, but Joel stayed there, kneeled down on the stage, and signed autographs (on paper, shoes, phones and whatever else people could find) for a solid half-hour for an ever-increasing throng of fans, most of whom had to be high-school aged.
There were also times when people ran up on stage and had to be tackled and dragged off, with Joel quipping to security mid-song not to hurt them too badly. On another occasion, one particularly brazen girl snuck around the huge set of speakers, right past Peter Elkas and settling beside Joel during his encore, with Plaskett unfazed, commending the girl on her nice choice of shades. So I guess Joel Plaskett = consummate musician...but also, awesome human being. Can't wait for his next show.
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