by JACK OATMON

There are hordes of holidays that celebrate the Forces of Good. Between Thanksgiving, Ramadan, Diwali, Yom Kippur and Christmas, the autumn and winter are essentially saturated with festivals championing chastity, respect, love and humility. Frankly, a guy barely gets to enjoy some solid wrongdoing, most of the time. Thankfully, just once a year, we all get the chance to come together in a non-denominational, no-holds-barred homage to the Dark Side. It’s an unedited tribute to decadence, debauchery, misinformation, vanity, deceit, sex, violence and death. And you get to eat all the candy you want.

When you stalked around, knocking on your neighbours’ doors as a youngster, whips, laser guns and cattle prods in hand, there were always some quality-control issues. Some places would give you succulent candy apples, others would give you the gross little toffees that you’d choke down three weeks later, lamenting the consumption of all your sweetest treasures. Now, as adults, we must roam the dark alleys of the night, relentlessly searching, like brain-hungry zombies, for the parties that will provide us with the fudge-brownie of excitement that we need, while avoiding the stale chips available elsewhere.

For your heinous entertainment, the festivities are plenty this weekend. On Friday night, you can drop by Café De Lima for an evening with Maüs, Soundshaper, and Nathan Burns. That same night, Why Alex Why?, Jordan Dare and Thomas Von Party are at the latest Voyeur. I know I’m scared. Furthermore, Trentemoller makes an awaited appearance at Diskho’s jam in Musée Juste Pour Rire. Be absolutely sure to play the Pain Pong game at that show. My hand is still swollen from the WLTV party there. I, however, won’t be seen anywhere but les Saints that night, when the legendary Afrika Bambaataa makes one of his rare appearances. His pioneering style hints at the rap/hip hop/dance-music explosion which has occurred during the man’s prolific, if somewhat under-documented, career. The flavour of the music, which you’ve heard sampled and revisited a gazillion times, is just as relevant now as it ever was. I’m therefore fabulously curious what he’ll play to what should be a packed house.

Saturday night would be a good time to say a fond almost-farewell to Peer Pressure’s Scandal at Vinyl. I’ve got this funny feeling we might hear about a demonic after-party later that night. I dunno, call me crazy. Also, don’t forget to catch Plastique de Rêve at Academy on Monday. I once sat behind the DJ booth and watched the guy’s set, grinning with satisfaction at the smoothness of the mixes. Good stuff.

On Halloween itself, which falls on Tuesday, Oct. 31, I’d recommend the downtown showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which will be at Cinéma Imperial on Bleury. When else do you get to see several hundred people in drag and bondage gear throwing food and insults at each other (aside from the Mirror office parties and Liberal leadership conventions, of course)? Other showings will occur at the Dollar Cinema near Namur metro on Friday and Saturday.

JACK O’AT LANTERN! jack.oatmon@gmail.com

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