Spooky Good Stuff on (and off) State
Halloween Bashes at SOhO and Velvet Jones, and More
Dearest spooks, ghouls, ghosts, creeps, and freaks — ’tis the season for monster mashing of various kinds. While All Hallows’ Eve falls midweek this year, on a Wednesday, this coming weekend features enough scary-good shows on and off the street of State that you shall have multiple occasions to wear your graveyard finest.
At SOhO Restaurant & Music Club (1221 State St.), on Friday, October 26, Gene Evaro Jr., from Joshua Tree, headlines a Halloween bash with Boostive, from Santa Cruz via San Diego. Evaro and band will whip up a super-funky, stylish blend of melody and rhythm, while Boostive will mash up dub and roots music, soul and funk. Thematically, one of its newest works, “Boo-Wop,” features celebrating skeletons as cover art. The dead are known to rise to dance around this time of year, and this Halloween bash is sure to make many a corpse rise. Come dressed in costume. The show begins at 9 p.m.
NOCHE DE TERROR: Another excellent Halloween party this weekend comes when the many-member sensation Banda La Invasora headlines a Noche de Terror at Velvet Jones (423 State St.) with area acts La Sonora Explosiva, Linea Privada, DJ Oscar, and DJ Raton. Banda La Invasora, from S.B., plays traditional, Sinaloa-style banda music, with a big, exuberant sound that shall widen the smiles of all local jack-o’-lanterns. Come dressed in costume. The show begins at 8 p.m.
HOW DEAP IS YOUR VALLY: Earlier in the week at Velvet Jones, the glammed-out garage-rock two-piece Deap Vally will deliver delicious distortion aplenty on Thursday, October 25. Comprising Lindsey Troy (guitar, vocals) and Julie Edwards (drums, vocals), the powerful duo drives forward with more blues-rock energy than acts two to four times its size. Expect, variously, your face to melt and your ears to ring out, in all the best ways. Joining Deap Vally will be L.A.’s The Paranoyds, who will set the night’s fuse with rumbling rockness. The show begins at 7 p.m.
HOWL AT THE MIRROR: The Mercury Lounge (5871 Hollister Ave., Goleta) offers a double whammy on Friday, October 26, with S.B.’s very own psychedelic Mirror Mind and L.A.’s The Howling Faith. Mirror Mind shall reflect back at you your inner dreamer, visionary, or most tranced-out rocker self through its hard-driving, psychedelic, ’60s-’70s influenced music. Relative newcomers on the scene, the band describes its music as a “a deep, trancelike journey through the hard-rock sphere … leading … down … the rabbit hole …” The well-placed ellipses fill you in on the thrills on offer.
The Howling Faith, meanwhile, translates the barren shine of a desert-scape into its rhythmic alt-country rock. Citing ’60s instrumentalists like Duane Eddy and Dick Dale along with contemporaries like Calexico as influences, the band has the barbed-wire-y, sparse twang of a desert-dwelling kind of soul, L.A. style. The show begins at 9 p.m.
GALLERY OF SOUNDS: Over in the UCSB realm, there’s more than what’s going on in Isla Vista around this time of year. At the Glass Box Gallery on Monday, October 29, Theodore Cale Schafer brings abstract music from Santa Fe, playing along with our very own ambient master Spencer VH and the found-sound formations of Asheville, North Carolina’s Alec Sturgis. The show begins at 7 p.m.
TORO Y MOI AND ME: Last but not least, November begins with a show from Toro y Moi at SOhO, on Thursday, November 1. Days before the clocks fall back, you can fall back into the relaxing, stimulating, hypnotizing grooves of Toro y Moi, led by singer/producer Chaz Bear. Since its chillwave beginnings, the band has developed a funkier sound and definitely provides the good times when it hits the stage. The show begins at 9 p.m.
