Talking Points:: Joel Plaskett - Live at the Rebecca Cohn

Considering I've done my fair share of show recaps where Joel Plaskett is concerned (the search results back me up on that), I was just going to treat this past Saturday's show at the Rebecca Cohn as an enjoyable night out and not be worried about dissecting the whole thing later in music blog mode. It doesn't have to be all herohill all the time. Or does it? After leaving the show and thinking it just might have been the best Plaskett performance I'd seen, I figured I needed to write something. And what's the perfect format for such a situation? You guessed it, the world famous herohill talking points! So let's get into it.

- Joel already had a pretty deep catalogue of songs, before the release of his latest album, but dropping a triple album with 27 new songs (not to mention 3 More, the new 45' single he released on his own label) has almost doubled the material he has at his disposal when creating his setlist. If Saturday was any indication, I'd say that's a very good thing.

- Joel, his Dad, Anna Egge and Rose Cousins opened with Happen Now, which is one of my favorite Joel songs and a solid way to win me over.

- I realized a couple songs in that I was sitting beside a family, and I do mean family - a mom & dad with two little girls that had to be under 10, rocking White Fang fan club t-shirts. When you have folks making t-shirts for your cat, you know you've made it.

- The band, at various points throughout the night: Joel, Bill Plaskett, Ana Egge, Rose Cousins, Dave Marsh & Chris Pennell (The Emergency), Pete Elkas (I guess he's kind of an official Emergency member now), Dale Murray on pedal steel, two dudes on tin-whistles, the Daves he knows (Myles on trumpet, Christensen on sax), and Adam Baldwin (of El Torpedo fame) on piano for the grand finale.

- The full band joined him for Sailor's Eyes, and the results were pretty impressive - this might've been my favorite song off of disc 2, the one I reviewed for the hill, but it was better live than I might've expected

- Joel has always seemed excited at his hometown shows, but seeing as how this one came at the end of a tour, he almost seemed more relieved than anything.

- I have to say kudos to both Ana Egge and Rose Cousins, who sound great on the record, but were also fantastic live. They are both talented solo artists in their own right, so it's admirable to see them so totally comitted to a project like this.

- The highlight of his between-song banter was likely a story he told relating Twisted Sister's We're Not Going To Take It to Billy Joel's Sleeping With The Television On, which led into True Patriot Love.

- I was a big fan of Ashtray Rock, but outside of Fashionable People and one or two of the slow jams, I wonder if the songs on that album will be mainstays in Joel's future shows.

- I think Joel's recent make-up session with Kelowna had an impact on him, as he altered to lyrics to Love This Town to take out the Kelowna dissing.

- He took to the drum kit to play a rousing version of Fashionable People (is what I typed before thinking it sounded familiar and checking my recap of Joel's Alderney Landing show in '07. I was right). He also dedicated the song to Tone Loc, who collapsed while performing the night before. A thoughtful gesture in my humble.

- I don't think that Lazy Bones was one of the standout tracks on Joel's new album for me, but after seeing him do it live, Petra and I were humming off and on all day Sunday. On reflection, it is a very lovely song.

- The finale was appropriately the 12 minute plus closer from Three, On & On & On, which, partly due to the full band backing him up, didn't feel near that long.

Because I kept things high class and didn't bring a camera to bootleg record any of the sights and sounds from the evening, I thought I'd post a couple of these songs from his Moncton show at the Capitol Theatre in Moncton, which is available as one of Radio 2's concerts on demand. Joel didn't have the full band for this one, but it still gives you a nice taste of how the new songs sound live.

MP3:: Joel Plaskett - Deny, Deny, Deny (Live @ The Capitol Theatre)

MP3:: Joel Plaskett - Through & Through & Through (Live @ The Capitol Theatre)