This year, the Devil played a mean trick and decided to have Halloween fall on a Monday. While some bars and venues will still celebrate the holiday that day, mostly it will be during the weekend when you’ll see clubs decorated with spider webs and patrons dressed as witches, zombies and Ken Bones.
Many musicians working this weekend will also likely perform in costume, but a few special shows will feature local artists performing in bands that pay tribute to other musical acts by playing a full set’s worth of their songs. It’s a trend that’s been happening for a while now, and this weekend features a few great chances in Greater Cincinnati to catch some of your favorite musicians who normally play original music having some fun and performing as tribute artists.
• Friday, local musician/promoter Adam Stone brings his Halloween tribute shindig, The Fifth Requiem, to Northside Tavern (4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside, northsidetav.com). The show is free and kicks off at 9 p.m. Music will be featured in the venue’s back room and front entry room.
The back-room fun starts with The Cloaks, a tribute to the music of The Strokes that features members of Pop Empire, Mardou, The Never Bird and Nanny. Our Name is Jonas follows, with a group featuring members of The Slippery Lips, The Pinstripes and Know Prisoners playing “Blue Album”-era Weezer. Ghostin’ Against Your Mind plays the songs of Indie Rock legends Built To Spill; the band features members of Build Us Fiction, Comprador and Swoops. The back-room lineup ends with a midnight performance from Beck From the Grave, which, as you probably guessed, is a tribute to Beck. The Beck band appears the be the largest of the night, with members of WHY?, Dawg Yawp, The Ridges, Toon Town, Newport Secret Six, DAAP Girls, The Tillers, Lazy Heart, Krystal Peterson & The Queen City Band and A Mile Stone teaming up for the project.
The front-room fun begins at 10:30 p.m. with Pink Flag, a tribute to Post Punk legends Wire headed up by Steve Schmoll (formerly of bands like Lazy and The Tigerlilies and currently the proprietor of the Black Plastic record stores). At 11:30 p.m. in the front room, Little Fury Things, a tribute to Dinosaur Jr. put together by longtime local musician Jason Hounshell, is slated to appear.
• Saturday night at the Southgate House Revival (111 E. Sixth St., Newport, southgatehouse.com), excellent radio station WNKU is hosting the Catfish Ball, which features nearly a dozen local artists performing the songs of iconic musicians on all three of the venue’s performance stages. The show begins at 8 p.m. Admission is $15 in advance through ticketfly.com or $20 at the door.
On the Southgate’s Lounge stage, Young Colt will play the music of Elvis Presley, The Pine Box honors the songs of Jeff Buckley and local Folk singer Jake Speed will pay tribute to American icon Woody Guthrie. In the Revival Room, The Tigerlilies tackle the catalog of Glam Rock legend T Rex, Lovecrush 88 crushes songs by Motorhead, Mad Anthony takes on the music of The Doors and Psych/Folk duo Dawg Yawp honors the legacy of The Beatles. In the club’s Sanctuary, Modern Aquatic plays The Ramones and The Yugos cover Joy Division, while two of the biggest music-world losses of 2016 — David Bowie and Prince — will be celebrated by Just Strange Bros and The Almighty Get Down, respectively.
• The Northside Yacht Club (4227 Spring Grove Ave., Northside, northsideyachtclub.com) hosts a fun twist on the “Halloween cover band” motif Saturday at 9 p.m. Playing the event are Cranblossoms, a live-band mash-up of the music of The Cranberries and Gin Blossoms; Bryan Ryan Adams, which features Ryan Adams songs performed in the style of Bryan Adams and led by Chris Robinson of local Folk greatYoung Heirlooms; and something called gHOTh Topic, which is fronted by local singer/songwriter Dan Mecher (Denial, Turnbull ACs) and features spooky versions of songs by artists you’d likely find emblazoned on T-shirts at everyone’s favorite mall store, Hot Topic (Danzig, My Chemical Romance, Alkaline Trio, Misfits, etc.).
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen@citybeat.com
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 2, 2016.
