With Halloween on a Friday, many nightclubs are including Saturday in their costume contests and having them on more than one night, sometimes with music, to boot. (This is a good way the get my blog rolling again, as their was a gap in postings due to a crash where demons invaded my computer. Sorry about that).
– The costume party at the Willow River Saloon in Burkhardt will be Saturday night, with lots of prizes and being deemed The Halloween Bash. The music will be by The Fiddler, a group of guys from a regular band who play the Willow who also have this side specialty gig. “They play a pretty mean fiddle,” a bartender at the Willow said. “Everybody here will be in costume.” on Friday, there will also be some costumed creatures cavorting.
– Guv’s Place in Houlton will double your listening pleasure by featuring the music of Kyle Kohila, with his quick acoustic guitar picking, and also a deejay on Halloween night. The dreaded creatures decorating up the place, however, will provide anything but pleasure as they’ve gotten even more creepy because of even larger numbers, courtesy of co-owner Jess. She this year has provided additional scary clowns (her favorite), as well as a figure-eight-shaped collection of monsters that takes up the majority of the ceiling space, with several yards of spider webs in the middle. There will be cash and other prizes for best costumes.
– The costume party at Pudge’s Bar is enhanced by perhaps the greatest number of life-size monsters you will see at a nightclub, including as quite noteworthy a skeletal beastie with a completely severed jaw. Aptly-named drink specials will abound at Pudge’s during the Halloween night party, such as the Blood Clot Shot and Dead Dude. Of particular interest, though, is The Cyclopse. They are vodka infused, go for $2 each and as you might guess are based on using an “eyeball.” And yes, there are happy hour special prices all night for people in costume, with the judging of those get-ups taking place at 11:30 p.m. in a competition for prizes.
– It’s eat, drink and be scary, in what’s billed as The Nightmare on Sixth Street, the fifth-annual costume party at Season’s Tavern in North Hudson on Saturday night. It will feature the opportunity of food being served until midnight, if you can feast (on what?) if in any mood for eating after seeing the un-earthly sights. There’s a costume contest with cash prizes for first, second and third, and the house band, longtime rockers Thirsty Camel, for listening from 9 to midnight as you watch the creatures dance and indulge in the special, jello shots all night. The event is called crazy, spooky fun, in a good way, for adults. And you never know if that famous cellar-dweliing ghost might show up.
– To round out the mix, Ellie’s on Main will have their usual lengthy and over-the-top costume judging on both nights, and this year’s theme to be aired at Dick’s Bar and Grill on Friday is “movie star.” The Village Inn in North Hudson on Saturday supplements their costume contest with a blue’s band, the Swamp Kings (good name for Halloween). Some places are keeping it low-key, with only a scantly promoted, in-house party, but it seems that virtually every club has something planned, with Woody’s in Bayport on Saturday going the most whole hog, (note that the last three digits of their phone number are 666).
And with a different twist is the Agave Kitchen and Bullpen Cantina with an on-line contest. Not to mention a newcomer to local costume parties, the Smilin’ Moose, which will go both nights and really up the ante for prize money. (While waiting for the judging, check out the moose head now equipped with a big mustache).
– Some of the parties will have a zombie theme, perhaps because of the popularity of the television show The Walking Dead, said my friend Matt. However, it was clear that the ghouls at San Pedro will tone down the blood and guts because after all, it is a restaurant and people will be eating a different kind of flesh.
– Jeff Loven indeed “got the band back together,” as he is fond of saying, when guitarist Brent made an appearance at his One Man Band show. Back in the ’80s, when Jeff cut his teeth with the heavy metal band Obsession, Brent opened for him as a 15-year-old Wunderkind. They on that recent Sunday teamed up to rip through Eruption by Van Halen — a tune that was also played, even more scaldingly, by another guest guitarist a few nights later who was on stage for more songs then usual, about five.
– With Halloween coming, the band choices picked by clubs are apparently effected. One named Shadows on the Wall played at Dick’s Bar and Grill on Wednesday, Oct. 15. The only non-Halloween aspect is that they took the stage in the early evening, not the midnight witching hour. Described as loud, but good, one wonders if this “Shadows” had the same volume as Avenged Sevenfold, a prominent metal band made up of Wiccans that has a member by that name.
– The folks at Stone Tap were figuring that their many Oktoberfest beer specials would be bringing in customers, some of them stopping in after spending some introductory time across the street at the German themed Winzer Stube, which of course is offering more of the same. Some of the others having Oktoberfest beer specials include Dick’s and Casanova Historic Liquors.
– And for a last seasonal happening, and a possible prelude to Halloween haunts, check out the Hudson Raider football game at Kozy Korner in North Hudson at 7 p.m. Friday. (The costumes that will abound, in the form of football jerseys on the wall, will be more along the lines of highly decorated varsity athletes who went on to college ball). This is round two of the playoffs, and the No. 2 seeded local team faces a No. 3 seed, Appleton North, by virtue of defeating Green Bay Preble in a 27-3 blowout, also shown at Kozy, in the opening round.