Review and photos – Joel Plaskett at the Garrick Theatre, Winnipeg, May 5 2009

– review by eugene osudar/photos by Mike Latschislaw

true
patriot
love

joel plaskett
and friends

garrick theater
on stage
on guard
on stands
guitars
at attention
de,man,ding!
at/ten/tion
eyes on
acoustics
gazing on
electrics
standing
all in a line
o,
true
patriot love

winnipeg
may 5
8:05
garrick theater

“hi folks,”
says JP

and we’re in
the palms
of his friend(ly)
hands

just like that
it’s the voice
his in/flec/tion
well,
coming
purr/for,mer,
“hi folks.”
we’re invited
and the rhymes
and stories flow,

free
ly
true patriot love
ly

“i’m here all a
lonesome. I’m
gonna start with a song
i sing every night,
a song for the spring time flowers
for the higher powers.”

“oh my love
you got carried
along
and away”

(and merely three hours
before
don’t i know the feeling
after seeing my ex,
wife)

“at 3 AM
they play
O Canada,
true patriot love”

and then
in/between
verses
joel’s stories,
“at the US border,
they said, Joel
Plassssss-kette,
how do you expect
to be successful
with a name like that?”

bruce springsteen?
born in the usa
with a name like that!
how did he expect to make it?

hard work.
writing songs,
take the latest cd,
Three,
27 songs.
feeling it
being it
loving it
true patriot love,

“they went through our diaries
and our journals. it
was very depressing.”

“here’s a love song.
i feel like,
deer in the headlights
i can see the front row
that’s about it.
i wrote this song
at the kitchen table
i have an old
fearless
white cat
White Fang
(farley mowat
kinda name,
true patriot love)
she’s got no balance
she sleeps anywhere
everywhere
all the time,
my old white cat
White Fang”

“my love got lost,
this time
she’s gone for good”

“the cops showed up
they’re trying to turn me
into a patsy”

“everything will work out fine”

“it’s nice to be back in winnipeg
working it out”
and stories of the places he’s
played
the royal albert arms
(where his winnipeg love affair began)
the palace of punk
and of hardcore.
ozzy’s and the collective cabaret
(no more)
he didn’t mention
playing The Pyramid
shaun gibson
drummer for The Details
and Oldfolks Home
remembers playing a gig
with joel there.

joel’s been around this city
last time i saw him,
at the west end cultural center
just before the nearly completed
renovations, more than a year ago

“let’s sing a song
(an invitation to join him)
behind the keyboards.
i bought this at a Value Village.
i love value villages.
got this keyboard for 6 bucks.
and i wrote this song
on this keyboard.
it’s more of a ditty
not a song really.”

“smoke and mirrors
snakes and ladders”

“girls roll around the sand”

“Television Set to free my mind”

“here’s a break the ice song.
just breaking through the ice
song
we had a tough winter
too
i took a good spill on the ice
so i reached into my pocket
for my K
Poe
and wrote this song
for the winter”

and here is where
it happened
4 determined
young women
armed with the courage of their
convictions
agreed to step
forward
to the front of the stage
and change
the once movie house
Garrick
dynamic
(fannies in the movie seats)
and began
in earnest
something
more intimate
more loving
more passionate

a loving affair
a true patriot love
affair
with joel plaskett
and friends,

and before
the song is through
the 4
changes to 14

and joel smiles,
“the front row has just changed!
here’s a new song, from Three,
someone
pointed out
it’s a clunker.
it just so happens to be one
of one of my favorites.
and just like Hoagy Carmichael
has his Lazy Bones,
this is my
lazy bones.”

and during joel’s lazy bones,
ana and rose walk on stage
more friends!
ana punk,plunks on the drums
rose tink,tickles the keys
and this fave of a “clunker”
ends up rollicking!

“you need to sleep
you need to dream
you need to slip
into places unseen
slide into space
with the snow
on the screen”

“can you sign my album?”
says a young he
holding out a cd

“later on, sure”

what the heck,
joel reaches out
and the young he
hands him the cd
and sharpeee

“this is the first time i’ve ever done this.
it could eat up a lot of
show time if it happens all the time.”

reminds me of elton john
signing hundreds
of cds, albums, shirts, stubs
programs
before his encore
every thing given to him,
from one end of the arena
stage to the other

(it does eat up a lot of show time!)

but there are times
for the first times
for everything

oh virginity
lost in true
patriot love
affair
winnipeg

and so begins the next song
and a roar
“you think you know this song,
what am i thinking
i’ll give you three guesses,
precious precious precious
you’re too precious”

and the audience is electric
and committed
and joyful
to his songs
to his words
to his tom petty kinda
voice
to his true patriot love

now
the front of the stage
is packed
and the front rows
standing
i’m on the side
writing
dancing

“no strangers to dirt and dust
winnipeg! it’s on your streets”

“run run run
you must
cuz if you walk
you rust
you get crushed
from a diamond
into dirt road
dust”

“we got carried away
at my studio
recorded 27 songs
this one’s called
you let me down.
it’s a loving
goodbye song.”

“lying in the grass,
staring at the sun
burning out the memory
that you were the one
trying to pretend
that i didn’t feel a thing
but it’s feeling as familiar
as the simple song i sing”

“i grew up in lunenberg
nova scotia
look at your dime,
The Bluenose.
a fishing town
when i grew up
with lots of music”

“oh love
you’ve got sailor’s eyes
gone before the next sunrise
god damn your sailor’s eyes
gone before
the first crow flies
god damn your sailor’s eyes”

“this is a rock n roll song.
they played it on Power 97
this afternoon
I felt the power.
my friend in LA
said to me,
rhyming
april wine
palestine
what were you thinking?”

“last song of our first set.
take a rock n roll
intermission. that’s my new song,
intermission in winnipeg.”

“rollin rollin rollin
gathering no moss
i don’t know where i’m goin
but i know what it cost”

53 minutes

2nd set
fully an hour

opening with songs
purrformed with his Pa
Bill

“i had a vision
i could see two days ahead
i could see victoria
visions:

“listen kid
it’s not what you think
there’s a reason why i love this town
nobody cares how much money…”

and the audience sings along
and joel promises it’ll get real good
pumpkins will explode!
how good is that?
exploding pumpkins
and a rock n roll show
“me and my Pa
are shaking it down
for you”

and a song of betrayal
from ashtray rock
“sounds like fraggle rock,
there’s more profanity”

“all the leaves are gone
i don’t give a f#ck”

beautiful
seeing hearing
father and son
harmonizing
playing
same stage
same page
son from the sage

then Bill sings an original song
discovered from a cassette
joel listened to

and there’s this intimate (moment)
after a wobbly heartfelt guitar
solo from joel
to his father
to us
and they laugh
together
oh my spine tingles
the Love
the true
son’s patriot
love
to the blessed
father

and then there’s

beyond,beyond,beyond
in sad memory
of an old friend
who died
a song for him
and friends and family

there’s ebb
there’s the river
there’s flow
the journey
this concert
is,is,is
Three

“me and you on gallows hill
1980, 1 or 2
hurry up and tie your shoe
we’re gonna be late for school
passing through the gravestones
as we’re drawing near
i do not know anyone
who’s buried here…

me and you on gallows hill
so much anger left to kill
you’re drifting out and drifting in
where to end, where to begin?
passing through the gravestones
as we’re drawing near
somebody we know and love
is buried here”

and from Three
comes a song dedicated
to wondrous she
oh, Nettie
dear friend
dear Love
dear heart
to every indie musician
who passes through
this great city
oh winnipeg
Oh Nettie
Deny,Deny,Deny
from joel to you
with his heart
from his heart

“hey disappearing dreamer!
what are you dreaming now?
hiding places i could never find
hey disappearing dreamer
let me ask you how
you intend to make this heart rewind”

and comes
“In The Blue Moonlight
another song from Three
songs about blue moons
blue moon of kentucky
blue moon by big star
i’ll be singing mine”

“in the blue moonlight
hanging by a thread
in the blue moonlight
my galaxy is dead
not a star in the sky,
no apology said
in the blue moonlight
calling out for you
in the blue moonlight
slowing coming to
from a sleep so deep,
and a love so true”

“sunlight,stones and sticks
why’d you go and leave me alone?”

(thank you)

rollicking and rocking
my dancing shoes on:

“hey good looking
why the frown
you always look better
when it’s upside down

can i go
Nowhere
With You”

come on let’s move!

“Belted trees and all.
i’m going to belt this one out
to the trees!

Lean on in
bend your knees
when your lights turn green
what do you want me to do
to make it happen now”

encore,encore,encore
“clueless wonder”
“extraordinary”
“fashionable people”
(“dancers need a dance floor
swingers need to swing”)
“wishful thinking”

The Belted Trees!
now there’s a band name courtesy
of joel plaskett

explosion of one/of/a/kind
winnipeg applause
electricity
in one great city
love
affair
with Joel Plaskett

true patriot love

or Three (more friends, ana, rose and bill),

thank you

one and Three
and all
the hundreds
who were there.