Monday, November 03, 2008

Halloween 2008 Recap



Thank you to everyone who came out to the big Halloween Party Show on Friday. I had an excellent time. When you put together a thing like that, or at least when I do, it gets kind of stressful, because you just never have any idea if anyone is going to show-up. You have to have faith and I have little faith. I know how hard it can be sometimes to leave the house, especially now that it's starting to get colder outside.

The group of people that came to our event was really excellent. They were happy and friendly and enthusiastic and they saved the day. Earlier that afternoon, Matt Hebert, Thane Thomsen, Jason Bourgeois and I met at the World War II Club and set up the rented P.A., loaded in instruments, and set up lights in the room. It was a really nice time on a beautiful warm autumn day.

At about 5:00 I went home so that I would be there to hand out candy to trick or treaters (one of my all-time favorite things to do). I put the giant pumpkin in the window and turned on the orange light outside and waited. Lesa and I ordered a pizza and between eating that, watching the previous night's Office and 30 Rock, and putting together our costumes, we handed out candy to just a handful of kids. Unfortunately, we had to head back out to the World War II Club before the trick or treating traffic had really picked up.

Back at the Club we arrived to find a bunch of people bustling around, setting up equipment and putting together costumes. Time whipped by and, before you knew it, The Novels were taking the stage. Jason as Sherlock Holmes, Mike as a doctor with baby parts in his pockets, Ian as the guy from There Will Be Blood, and Roger as a devil. I kicked on the fog machine and they played an awesome set. Seeing Roger spazzing out on the drums in his devil mask in the smoke was terrifyingly delightful. I was told by some that this was the best Novels show they have seen. It sounded very natural and organic and energetic. Love them.

After The Novels, School for the Dead took the stage. We were a three piece at this show since Tony was ensconced in his own familial and scholastic Halloween activities and since Ken is on a School for the Dead Sabbatical. Max was a surgeon covered with blood and holding a real heart, Brian was a witch/warlock/wizard and I was scary. Our set was strangely raw sounding to me. Maybe it was the amp I was borrowing, or the view from behind my contact lenses and creepy make-up. I don't know. It sounded good to me, it was very pure and rock. We played a short set and I loved the smoke shooting out from behind me and the way it dispersed into beams of differently colored lights that were gleaming up form the front of the stage.

Following School for the Dead was Haunt, but before they took the stage, it was time to give out some prizes. I was joined by the all star V.I.P of the evening, Jose Ayerve. All night long, Jose was dressed as a witch/wizard and he had an awesome light-up wand. Someone he single-handedly wrangled everybody in the room together with his unyielding energy. He brought people up to the front of the stage, he got people dancing, he adjusted lights and sounds, and he had people laughing throughout the entire event. Three cheers for Jose.

So, yes, Jose and I took to the stage to hand out prizes. These were the costumes that won: "The Lady Who Can't Wait For Christmas", Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, The Alien Babe With The Exoskeleton, The Two Fancy Geisha-like Ladies, Juno, The Young Tina Turner. Nice job everyone. Here are some other costumes that I can recall from the evening: Prom Queen, A couple scary clowns, Alligator Head, Foxy Brown, Fancy Ladies, Skeleton Twins, A Couple Unidentifiable Crazy Things, 60's Swingers, and more I can't think of at the moment.

After the incredibly valuable prizes were given out, Haunt took the stage. They were all dressed as witch/wizards. They were all identical and they were all hilarious. Especially hilarious was these identical witch-like wizards up there in the flashing lights and smoke play Matthew Hebert's mostly serious and heavy heartfelt songs. I love a little Halloween dichotomy don't you? There was even a last minute bonus wizard in Ryan from Los Hijos Unicos who took to the stage with a theramin app on an IPhone. It was all beautifully sublime.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the party. I hope you had fun. See you next time.

(Photos to come)

2 comments:

debl said...

You forgot to mention how awesome it was to watch Haunt rock out while dressed as five identical wizards. And you should, because it was awesome.

Henning said...

Thank you, I fixed that. I had accidentally posted an unfinished draft.