CMW, CMF: Joel Plaskett Ushers in Canadian Music Week Atop the CN Tower

Canadian Music Week kicked off its 30th anniversary on a high note -- literally. Toronto's annual music conference's Canadian Music Fest began with a party atop the world's second-tallest structure, the CN Tower (shakes angry fist at Dubai) featuring the country's second-tallest musician, Joel Plaskett (shakes angry fist at Win Butler).

The beloved Can-rocker, whose solo career has by now long outlived his glorious run with his '90s band Thrush Hermit, boasted about being "the highest band in the world right now" and played a mix of his older solo songs like 'Deny, Deny, Deny' off his aptly-titled triple album 'Three' and some brand-new cuts off his upcoming (and apparently also aptly-named) record 'Scrappy Happiness.'

The highlight was 'North Star,' which was preceded by Plaskett mourning his old '95 Chevy truck, on which he clocked half-a-million tour KM before it was laid to rest. "We needed a song for that trick, so in celebration of that truck [we wrote this]. This would be me if I was in 'The Big Lebowski.' It's not autobiographical, but I'm in there somewhere."

And then band launched into a '70s-inspired riff-rocker that mocked his indie peers ("every second band's got an animal name") while sounding not unlike a welcome outtake from his 1999 all-time classic 'Clayton Park.'

After a couple more 'Ashtray Park' cuts -- including the decidedly out-of-place 'Snowed In,' considering the equally out-of-place summer weather outside -- Plaskett went out with another new song, 'Lighting Bolt,' which was more fitting since the CN Tower is also the city's best lightning rod.

"I wanted to write a song that felt good to sing in the summer," Plaskett explained, "Or, uh, sing indoors in the spring, at a kilometre-and-a-half in the air." The song actually proved to be a perfect encapsulation of the week's CMF festivities -- in which 900 musicians in 60 venues over five nights will try and grab that brass ring.

As a music veteran with his own ring in pocket, Plaskett rocked out while crooning his ode to up-and-comers: "This is our only chance/For certain happenstance/Some scrappy happiness/It's time to hit the bricks."