Hallowmas 2017

My third Hallowmas! With the World! Inferno! Friendship! Society! (I can’t NOT say it the way Jack Terricloth does at the beginning of a show. Duh.)

I brought my wife Anna again this year and her boyfriend, who is also one of my best friends independently of Anna, Peter.

When two of your best friends start dating, it’s actually fun to be the third wheel. Just sayin.

Anna wore a wig and I went as a fairy, and I’m pretty sure Peter was wearing both Anna’s wig and my wings before Inferno even hit the stage. Of course he was.

He gave me a bottle of wine that I killed before we even left Anna’s apartment, so it was about to be a GOOD night for me.

“I want to be drunker than Jack.”
“I can do that.”

The show was at the Warsaw in Brooklyn again, as always. Which means pierogis are a must.

I lost Peter and Anna immediately when Inferno hit the stage. I had a feeling that would happen, because this is Inferno we’re talking about, but I kept finding them throughout the night and they were definitely having a good time, so that made me super happy.

It’s a fairly big venue, but I was surprised I didn’t see a ton of people I knew. I saw Whitney in the pit at one point and briefly introduced her to Peter and Anna. Anna brought a different boy last year and he dragged her away from the show most of the night. Peter was having as much fun as anyone else in there, so Whitney and I decided that Inferno shows are a good test of who’s worthy of our time.

I think Doug probably danced with me for a song. He normally dances with me at least once, because he’s the best.

Yes, he came dressed as Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong. The guy next to him is Chicken Man, who… well he’s got kinda a legacy with Green Day, but I don’t remember the story exactly. Here’s a thing.

There was also a random dude who asked me to dance and said it was because he could “tell I had a sparkling personality.”

Me: LOL OK

The best was when I ran into Max AND Josh AND Patty all at the same time, and we danced together for like a whole minute. This was my California crew. I was so happy to have Team Butt reunited for a hot minute.

I wasn’t given any confetti to throw during this show, and there was no fake blood, but I did manage to find a guy who had a literal container of craft glitter. I stuck my hands in it and rubbed it on my face and hair. That’s gonna be there for two weeks, minimum.

Ich Erinnere Mich an Die Weimarer Republik

Doug got a sneak peek of the setlist before the show and told me they were opening with one “I hadn’t heard in a while.” LOVE.

Fiend in Wein

The Devil’s Ball

Tattoos Fade

It’s always weird when they don’t open with this one, but still LOVE.

Jeffrey Lee

Glamour Ghouls

Don’t Kiss Me, I’m Running Out of Lipstick

I think this is one of my favorites purely for the title/repeating of this line. I would SO use this in real life to someone.

Me v. Angry Mob

Loooove

Sick of People Being Sick of My Shit

Loooove

Second Chance Saloon

Peter Lorre

I was a little salty they didn’t play the full overture, but whatever. I’ll take what I can get. Still love it.

My Ancestral Homeland, New Jersey

…And Embarked On a Life of Poverty and Freedom

Paul Robeson

Love.

Hothouse Flowers

American Mercurial

Cathy Catherine

Thumb Cinema

Love.

Politics of Passing Out

I remember this song starting but honestly I don’t have any memory of this song. Did they kill it? Wouldn’t I remember if they did? Was I just drunk? Weird.

I love the song though.

Your Younger Man

The Naughty Little Rat Makes New Friends

LOVE. But the circle pit wasn’t as big as I think it should have been? I still moshed, though. Naturally.

Addicted to Bad Ideas

This Packed Funeral

Encore:

One for the Witches

Cats Are Not Lucky Creatures

So Long to the Circus

Pumpkin Time

They only had the same spider from last year and two skeleton things. No pumpkins or anything else this year. Weird.

Aaaaand that was it.

I knew most, if not all, of the songs they played at this show, which is super unusual for me because they have SO MANY songs.

Overall it was a really solid setlist, but it seemed SO SHORT. I feel like they normally play much later into the night on Hallowmas. I was not expecting it to end after “Pumpkin Time.” I was really confused when they didn’t come back onstage for another encore. I guess there was something about a curfew? I don’t know, it was weird.

But alas. All good things come to an end.

There was a guy in clown makeup who’d more or less been hanging around me and Peter and Anna all night, and while we were in line for coatcheck he was talking to us and then, poof, gone. Irish goodbye. Why does that feel like a fitting end to Hallowmas? A clown Irish goodbye?

The following photos all taken by Doug Kavendek: