One of the best nights of the year for music takes over Friday, the 31st
By Mike Hedrick
New Year’s Eve and Halloween are traditionally two of the best nights of the year to see music, but for the last few years Halloween has fallen mid-week, which has led the “holiday” to be stretched thin over multiple nights.
This year, however, with Halloween falling on a Friday night, promoters have stepped up huge and Friday, October 31, 2008 could end up going down as one of the best of the best.
Below is a list of (not every, but) a lot of the shows taking place on the Front Range that night:
Leftover Salmon with Pangea – Fillmore Auditorium
Usually the smell of leftover fish and old string cheese is bad. In this case it’s damn good. The polyethnic cajun slamgrass Front Range staples never need an excuse to dress up and go crazy but given the opportunity they go big, or they go home.
Jedi Mind Tricks – Fox Theatre
Anakin doesn’t have jack compared to these guys — the hip-hop group from the City of Brotherly Love, who earlier in the month will release their latest creation, A History of Violence.
Motet – Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom
David Byrne called, he said he wants his music back. Wait … he just texted and said it’s cool if The Motet does it because, let’s face it, they kick ass. Following their tradition of covering other folks’ material on All Hallows Eve, the Motet will this year do the music of the Talking Heads.
ZZ Top – Paramount Theatre
Screw mustache rides, are you ready for a long ass beard ride? The classic southern rock brothers band will most certainly have more than half the crowd wearing beards for the night.
DeVotchka – Boulder Theater
Satisfy your wanderlust and let the gypsies come to you. These guys are fast making their Halloween show an epic experience, but then again, it’s the Boulder Theater and even crappy bands have epic nights there, so this could be epic times a thousand.
Everything Absent or Distorted – Oriental Theatre
Make sure you’re everything but absent, it’s ok to be a little distorted. These guys are dropping their new album The Great Collapse this month and their most recent photo shows people laying in front of tombstones in a graveyard. Very Halloween, indeed.
3OH!3 – Gothic Theatre
It doesn’t get much more gangsta than two white boys straight outta Boulda, and with their post-Vans Warped Tour high this could be one of the most downright humorous shows of the night.
Electric Six – Bluebird Theater
Danger, danger, these Detroit boys are high voltage. As evident from their lit up packages of blatant symbolism. Can I get you some disco to go with your rock?
Laylights – Meadowlark
This band will put you hipsters in the mood to get laid, maybe even with the lights on. They’re often compared to early Echo and U2, so a good ’80s costume is encouraged.
Monofog – hi-dive
Best enjoyed in a purple haze, these local yokels call their music “dark basement stomping rock and roll.”
Railbenders – Herman’s Hideaway
No word yet on whether this will be a honky-tonk Halloween, or if they’ll be covering another artist like they did for Halloween a few years ago when they took on Mötley Crüe. Either way, it’ll make you wish for canned beer in your goodies bag.
Ghostface Killah – Vinyl
There’s no better place to be on a Halloween night than with this Wu-Tang member. Ghostface loves Iron Man, so if you can pull off the whole armored flying suit you’ll get immediate street cred.
Girl Talk – Ogden Theatre
Just read our cover story. Sure to be the dance-party of 2008, regardless of Halloween.
Shakedown Street – Quixote’s True Blue
Jerry Garcia Band Halloween-night shows were, for many years, some of the best Dead-related concerts around, always certain to bust out a “Werewolves of London.” If trippy-hippie heaven is your goal, look no further than this pillar of the Bianchi Empire. Just hope that club owner Jay Bianchi hasn’t shaved his eyebrows again for this year’s celebration.
Widowers – Larimer Lounge
These guys sure as hell won’t be thinking about their dead spouses once they realize how much Denver groupie tail they’re gonna get after this show. The Lounge is a little creepy on a normal night, on Halloween it’s certain to give you the willies.
