Halloween in Denver seems to inspire more holiday-themed musical events than any other holiday outside of the Fourth of July, and one list of things to do just wasn't enough. What follows are ten more of the best concerts/musical happenings for the season of the witch — in chronological order.
1. Halloween Indie/Underground Special: Faded Freakshow, Singing Cave, Universal Devils and Claudzilla
Skylark Lounge
Thursday, October 27
Free
When is the last time anyone saw a sideshow in Denver, much less at the Skylark? Here's your chance to catch Slim Fadey's Faded Freakshow, which will involve plenty of sideshow performance art, including the human pincushion. Knowing that keytar artist Claudzilla put this show together, you should expect costumes and other weirdness perfect for the holiday season.
2. Halloween Spooktacular, featuring Snailmate, Church Fire, Milk Blossoms and Cocordion
Syntax Physic Opera
Thursday, October 27
$7
Tempe, Arizona's Snailmate will provide plenty of musical freakishness for the night. Think a stripped-down version of the Mathematicians if they were more into nerdcore. Church Fire is almost always in costume, so every show is a bit like Halloween, but maybe this time, David Samuelson and Shannon Webber will change up their head gear for the occasion. Yes, Church Fire, that's a hint.
3. Lipgloss Halloween Party, featuring Cut Copy DJ set
Bar Standard
Friday, October 28
$20
For his Halloween costume party this year, Lipgloss head Michael Trundle is bringing in Cut Copy to do a DJ set. Between the regular Lipgloss DJs and Cut Copy, plenty of fun, dark music will be heard on the Bar Standard dance floor.
4. Post Paradise (as Radiohead), Stella Luce (as The Cure) and Slow Caves (as Arctic Monkeys)
Hodi's Half Note, Fort Collins
Friday, October 28
$10 advance, $20 day of show, +$5 for under 21
Three of the best indie bands in Fort Collins will be performing cover sets as outlined above. Considering that Slow Caves has kind of a SoCal surf-rock vibe, it'll be interesting to see the act's interpretation of Arctic Monkeys — not to mention Stella Luce, an experimental rock band, covering the Cure, most likely with female vocals. Could be worth the trip to see those two sets alone.
5. Rot Congress 7, featuring Kissing Party, Quantum Creep, Jobless, Super Bummer, The Far Stairs, French Kettle Station
Skylark Lounge
Saturday, October 29
$5
This is the seventh annual installment of Rot Congress, an event put on by music collective Hot Congress. The bands get in costume and perform short sets throughout the night. This time, the excellent usual suspects like Kissing Party and Quantum Creep will be joined by French Kettle Station, a human manifestation of enthusiasm. He'll probably weird out even some of the “cool kids” at this show with his raw energy.
Read on for five more Halloween-related concerts.
6. Ultraween 6: An Anti-Homecoming, featuring The Velveteers, Bud Bronson & the Good Timers and DJ E-Trane
Aztlan Theatre
Saturday, October 29
$20 advance, $25 at door general admission
$45 advance, $55 at door for VIP
That this show is taking place at the Aztlan Theatre is spooky enough. The venue feels like it should probably host some fete out of an Anne Rice novel, and in years past, when local goth-rock legends Seraphim Shock used to play there regularly, it sort of did. This night, the Velveteers and Bud Bronson & the Good Timers won't be very scary, but they will show what rock and roll should look and sound like.
7. Halloween Cover Show, featuring local bands covering Beat Happening, Dead Moon, Dixie Chicks, Dystopia, Joy Division, No Trend, Thin Lizzy, The Screamers and White Stripes, also DJs El Brian and DJ Deftron and visuals by Dr. Hamburger
Club Scum
Saturday, October 29
$5-10
Musicians from several bands have signed on to do a few songs by their band of choice for a cover set. While all the sets will surely be worthwhile, the Screamers will be covered by experimental-punk band Born Dumb — more or less the Screamers of Denver today. The Halloween edition of Thin Lizzy will be fronted by Tiana Bernard, formerly of Hot White and currently of Barbed Wire and Outs. Maybe she'll wear a mustache and button chops for the occasion, but you'll have to go and see for yourself.
8. Paranormal Palace, featuring live sets from Rowdy Shadehouse and Sammy T and DJs Future Funk, G6, Amuse and ST
McNichols Building
Saturday, October 29
Tickets start at $79
This is a gigantic party taking place over multiple floors of the McNichols Building. Though sometimes billed as that party from Eyes Wide Shut, there will probably be no disturbing sexual activity at the event, aside from what Rowdy Shadehouse frontman Jon Thursday will hint at from stage. But what would a Rowdy Shadehouse show be without some transgressive stage antics?
9. Goosetown's 3rd Annual Costume Party, featuring Pretty Mouth, Plume Varia, The Still Tide and Grammar School
Goosetown Tavern
Saturday, October 29
$5
While this show is not too spooky or Halloweeny except for the costume aspect, the party at Goosetown Tavern will nevertheless include performances from some of the best dark-and-moody bands from Denver. The lineup features Plume Varia, which recently recorded its new album with former Bauhaus and Love and Rockets bassist David J, an apt pairing for the act's gorgeous, dusky melodies.
10. Spooktacular, featuring Voideater, The Terminals, A Light Among Many and Skeid
Mutiny Information Cafe
Monday, October 31
$8, $5 with costume
Each of the experimental bands on this bill was asked to pick a horror movie to project for its set. So the menacing soundscaping of A Light Among Many might, for instance, go well with a Hammer House of Horror flick or something from Eli Roth, while the improvised compositions of the Terminals are more suited to John Carpenter's The Thing or the 2006 German-Expressionist-film-imitating The Call of Cthulhu.