Halloween is often one of the best nights of the year for local shows. With the ghoulish holiday falling on Saturday, there seems to be a bevy of options for how to spend the evening. Music Notes rounds up the top five shows this Halloween and recommends a horror movie that corresponds with each terrifying bill.
1. Company Brewing
Time: 8 p.m.
Cover: $10
The amount of inbreeding going on between the four local acts on the bill (New Age Narcissism, Foreign Goods, Klassik, Soul Low) is enough to create an oafish backwoods monster. WebsterX, from burgeoning rap collective New Age Narcissism, lent his talents on Soul Low’s Kind Spirit track “I Heard It All Before,” and Soul Low’s Sam Gehrke, Klassik and N-A-N member Jay Anderson also spend their time in the avant garde group Foreign Goods. Minneapolis’ MaLLy and Chicago’s Kweku rounds out the music portion of the night, which also includes a burlesque performance from dancer Zara Estelle. Going upstairs may be a death sentence in slasher flicks, but Company Brewing makes the ascent actually quite pleasant, offering a complimentary photo booth and face painting on the second level, with a Wax Addicts DJ set to boot.
Recommended movie companion: Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2. High Dive
Time: 9 p.m.
In the former Impala Lounge, the recently opened bar High Dive features three Milwaukee groups embodying three legendary rock bands. Trent Fox and the Tenants go as The Misfits, The Midwest Beat tries its hand at The Rolling Stones and Failed Mutation does The Smiths. This should be full-size-candy-bar types of fun.
Recommended movie companion: They Live
3. Quarter’s Rock ‘n Roll Palace
Time: 10 p.m.
Price: $5
Costume parties overtake bars on Halloween night, most offering cash for the best executed get-up. But the grimy Riverwest club Quarter’s Rock ‘n Roll Palace doesn’t hold itself to such high standards, instead awarding its grand prize for the raciest costume. Punk rock band The Pukes, glam rockers Ramma Lamma and the Brooklyn-based trashy rock group The Nuclears are on the bill, but the real treat here is Sheena and the Headbangers, an all-female Ramones tribute act.
Recommended movie companion: Return of the Living Dead
4. Pabst Theater
Time: 8 p.m.
Price: $10
After several successful years that included 2013’s excellent full-length debut Love of Mine, the two Banuelos sisters, Vic and Gab, play their final show under that moniker at The Pabst Theater (after the show was moved from the Cactus Club). Don’t fret, though, they’re not gone forever; they’ll be rising from the dead under a new name with a new album soon.
Recommended movie companion: Re-Animator
5. Cactus Club
Time: 9:30 p.m.
Price: $6
Metal and Halloween go together like zombies and braaaaiiiiinnnsss. The diverse line-up at Cactus Club gives you a little bit of everything that makes this fall holiday such a terror—thrash metal (Archers of The Aftermath), a tribute act (Hand of Doom who perform as Black Sabbath) and a haunting, synth-based cinematic score (Cannabinol Synapse).
Recommended movie companion: House of 1000 Corpses
