This being the weekend before Halloween, there’s a pretty good chance that your favorite bar/club will be hosting some sort of event involving costumes, fake blood and spooky drink specials. Here are a few Halloween events taking place this weekend with local music tie-ins:
• Artists group The Ghost Empire Collective and local music promotions group SOS Rock are teaming up with the Northside Tavern Saturday to present a night of Halloween-themed artwork (including “live art,” created while revelers watch) and mysterious, costumed tribute bands consisting of various local musicians. The makeshift groups performing are The Spiders
(David Bowie tribute), Charlotte Sometimes (The Cure) and Duct Punk (Daft Punk). The free show starts at 10 p.m.
• Saturday at Northside club Mayday, which is celebrating its third anniversary this week, you’ll find another free show with a “tribute band” element. The fun starts early — at 5 p.m. — with Mayday’s second annual “Beer & Sausage Fest,” which features specialty beer (and “house-made” sausage) offerings, as well as family-friendly games and contests (it’s “kid-friendly” until 9 p.m.). Those Who Cannot Be Named
, an all-star crew of local musicians paying tribute to legendarily controversial, definitely-not-kid-friendly Punk fire-ballers Dwarves, headlines the musical offerings (the group’s name is a nod to Dwarves guitarist HeWhoCannotBeNamed ) . Chicago’s Howie & the Homos will perform a set celebrating the music of Ohio, and Cincy Punkabilly foursome The Morbids round out the bill.
• Saturday at Rohs Street Café in Clifton Heights, local rapper MC Forty
presents “Crack-O-Lantern,” a release party for his new mixtape, Liquid Crack . The show also features performances by J Skillz and Audley , while Wonder Brown hosts. Liquid Crack is a great mix to get lost in, as Forty threads his tight, uplifting rhymes through a musical landscape that includes Avicii, Willy Wonka and local producers Fat Jon and Akhe Abdullah . You can download the release for free at mcforty.bandcamp.com .
• Friday night, the new Southgate House Revival hosts a “Zombie Surf Party” in its "Revival Room," with performances by area Surf Rock groups (dressed, presumably, in their finest undead gear) The AmpFibians
, The Maladroits , The Madeira and Concrete Rivals . Showtime is 9 p.m. and tickets are $5 in advance (through ticketfly.com ) or $8 at the door.
• Satan himself may have had something to do with delaying the grand opening of the Southgate House Revival earlier this month. The Oct. 5 show featuring a rare headlining set by Cincy-spawned “Satanic jug band” Hogscraper
was scrapped initially when the venue had to postpone opening night; fittingly, the show was rescheduled for Halloween weekend. Saturday night at 9 p.m., the “Grand Opening Redux” concert finally goes down with a diverse lineup that includes The Minni-Thins , Shiny and the Spoon , The Mudpies , Michigan’s The Webbs, Strawboss and the former Evans Collective, We Are Snapdragon . Also, Hogscraper frontman Lariat B. Grim performs double duty at “Redux,” showcasing his new Country outfit, Lariat B. Grim & The Goat Ropers . Tickets purchased for the Oct. 5 show will be honored. Admission is $10 (advanced tickets are available at ticketfly.com ).
More Local Notes
• This Tuesday at Newport’s Thompson House, the superb local Electronica duo You, You’re Awesome
opens for Kentucky Indie Dance Rock favorites VHS or Beta. The show is free thanks to sponsors George Killian’s beer and The Onion ’s A.V. Club and is part of a 10-date VHS or Beta tour that teams the group with a different local act in each city. While Tuesday’s show is free, you must RSVP at avclub.com/ruckustour . Showtime is 8 p.m.
• Get a free double-shot of top-shelf area Country music Wednesday at Cheviot’s Knotty Pine as the Dallas Moore Band
welcomes Southeastern Indiana’s Mason James to their regular every-Wednesday-night gig at the club. Moore and Co.’s music video for “ Crazy Again ” has been dominating the charts at yallwire.com for months now (currently sitting at No. 1 on the site’s “Yallturnative” chart and No. 3 on the general Country chart), while James’ “ Good Old Summertime ” clip has also spent a lot of time in the Top 10 of the site’s various charts. Moore recently announced that his band will release the single “Blessed Be the Bad Ones” — the title track off their forthcoming album — on Nov. 17 (visit dallasmoore.com for details and updates about the new single and album). Showtime Wednesday is 10 p.m.
CONTACT MIKE BREEN
: [email protected] , @CityBeatMusic or on Facebook here .
