:: The Joel Plaskett Emergency @ The Embassy by: (Friday, January 28) A Joel Plaskett show is like being on a rolling, all-seasons road trip that yawns across the whole of Canada, dips down into some of the States, and cruises off into the sunset of forever…only…in two hour sets. From Saskatchewan to Halifax, from BC down to Texas and back again, Plaskett’s the kind of performer that keeps you keepin’ on, and wishing he would too. When he took the stage at the Embassy last Friday night it was in front of a crowd of mostly 20-something’s, judging from the raucous cheering that accompanied his intro to the encore-closing “Come On Teacher” (“Friday night in this university town eh London? Means we’re all off the hook tomorrow”). A city-specific nod to the demographic always gets shouts of approval, and Plaskett was clearly psyched to be tossing ‘em out with a tip of his beige fedora on that particular night. The bar was packed -from the overcrowded bathrooms on the left (I’ve always wanted to know who the hell decided four was the magic number for stall count in that joint) to the graffiti-ed walls at the door to the scuzzy vinyl seating in back- packed. The white noise ramblings of the night’s sell-out crowd suggested that the cancellation of the Metric show at Call the Office may have helped fill London’s east-end live music haunt, but be they latecomer or long-time ticket-holder, everybody knew this was no second string show choice. At 12am, after opening sets from Grassy Knoll and the Magic Bullit, and Cuff the Duke (apologies about the non-reviews contained herein –the drinks were cheap and I was thirsty, but I hear both bands were good) the Joel Plaskett Emergency climbed quietly onstage. In a casual suit of black and white, Plaskett was accompanied by trucker-ified bassist Tim Brennan -complete with unbuttoned denim shirt, sweaty stubble and mesh cap- and drummer Dave Marsh –complete with…well…a head anyway, from what I could see. I said it was packed in there. At 29, Plaskett still looks every inch the kid you palled around with at summer camp –almost too tall and skinny for himself to walk around in, tousled blondish hair, eager face, enthusiastic eyes, slacks that look exactly like what you picture when you hear the term “slacks”, and a smile that’s the textbook definition of “grin”. Plaskett has stressed time and again that the Emergency is a band as opposed to a solo project, and though Brennan and Marsh are both excellent musicians in their own rights, it’s this smirk, this oh-so-natural-guy-you-grew-up-with familiarity, this effortless ability to wail on that butter-yellow guitar while spinning small-town stories of the lives of everyone and their dog, that make this band. Sticking pretty close to Down at the Khyber and Truthfully Truthfully, the Emergency opened with the crowd-riling “This is a Message” before settling down into slower numbers like “You Came Along”, “Radio Fly”, and a Joel-only acoustic version of “True Patriot Love”, which seemed a little weird at first. Amidst all the yakking about Canadian music and debate over whether or not there’s a true Canadian sound, Plaskett is often held up as the unarguable embodiment of that sound –fat, nostalgic guitar melodies as a backdrop to genuinely engaging lyrics. “True Patriot Love” is one that always gets a frenetic reception at live shows, so I wondered at stripping it down so much, but it turned out to be beautifully dig-able, especially after the snippet of ‘round-the-fire-ish precis Plaskett gave it –it’s the middle of the night, you’ve had one too many drinks, you’re lying on the couch listening to the first album your Dad ever bought you, soundtracking the muted CBC images you’re barely paying attention to as you start passing out. Hello high school dawns. Where did you come from? Another glimpse into his upcoming solo album La De Da (February 22nd –mark it on your calendars), and some “Light of the Moon” later, the entire Emergency was back onstage to stir the pit with “Red Light” and “Extraordinary” after which they broke for a few encore-enticing minutes and returned to play just a liiiiiiiiiiittle bit more. Included in this short set (one of the few sincerely necessary encores I’ve ever witnessed) was a new track called “There’s a Reason That I Love This Town”, simultaneously an affectionate homage to Plaskett’s hometown of Halifax, and wrist-slapping trashing of Kelowna in specific, and of the hipster scene in general. When the band left the stage that time, it was with many thanks to the city, the opening bands, the city, the audience, the city and the city (oh how the London love goes over with a London crowd). Stick-around screaming loosed forth from the front of the stage where fans refused to believe there wouldn’t be a second encore, while others started peeling themselves off the walls and milling around the merch table, all smiles and renewed Canadian pride. Someone yelled for Tom Waits. The Embassy’s insides spilled out to the trashy neon of Dundas Street, to the pizza place across the street, to the parking lot in the rear, to the now-empty seats at the back of the bar. A fruitless woo-hoo rang out, but it was 2am, and when the bar can’t sell any more drinks, it’s the end of the road for a Friday night. Time for people to get movin’ if they want to keep on keepin’ on, which is really the only thing I’m ever 100% positive I want to do after a Plaskett show. Ohhhh, how terrible he is for any sense of “stay in one place and accept the responsibility that comes with stability-ness one should probably think about developing someday...and so we turn him up...heh heh heh...