I figured Joel Plaskett would have a great turnout at his Geomatic Attic presented show at Southminster United Church, and was right, Sept. 27. I’ve never heard acts sound as good as Mo Kenny and Joel Plaskett did at their show.
Fellow Nova Scotian Mo Kenny was up first with a stunningly beautiful set of really laid back folk from her new CD which she recorded with Plaskett in his Dartmouth studio. She told stories and joked about bringing so much water on stage and probably could have played all night long for the enraptured audience of approximately 300 people.
She’d be back later in the evening to sing a couple duets with Plaskett.
But everyone wanted to hear Plaskett, who beamed ear to ear as he sang songs from throughout his career, though concentrating on a lot of songs from his “Ashtray Rock” CD.
One girl in the crowd shouted out “I love you Joel,” which only made him grin wider.
Peter Elkas added excellent harmonies, guitar and some keyboards as Plaskett switched between several different guitars including a couple acoustic guitars, a 12 string guitar, an electric guitar for one song and a four string tenor guitar which he used for much of his set of “blue eyed soul.”
He joked he injured his voice singing Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” a few days ago, though it didn’t show, then he played a few bars of that song before going back to his original material. A lot of his set was about cars and travelling as he spoke about getting his fists car from his father in law in B.C and bringing it back east as he played “Driving by the Light of the Moon.”
He told a story about recording in a “little studio called Abbey Road, which some band called the Beatles recorded in,” then played a song he recorded in it.
He played a song he wrote about 1993, a few from his latest CD “ Scrappy Happiness”, a couple covers from “EMERGENCYs, false alarms, shipwrecks, castaways, fragile creatures, special features, demons and demonstrations,” joking that the CD had a really long name. He had had the audience singing along with his older songs, who seemed to know all the words, but were just mouthing them along with him while paying rapt attention.
Mo Kenny returned to do a couple duets with him, one off his latest CD and a really beautiful song called “Deja Vu.”
The Celtic tinged “Deny, Deny, Deny,” from “Three,” was also a highlight for me. He saved his best known songs for the end of the hour and a half plus set. “Through & Through & Through” from his CD Three had everyone singing along, as did “Loose Lips Sing Ships” (When I Go) and “Nowhere With You.”