By now, not many of us remember when Madison Halloween meant anything other than Freakfest. Before most of us showed up on campus, a bunch of out-of-towners made a habit of getting totally hammlisched and mucking up our storefronts at night, so city officials decided to make everyone pay a bunch of money to shield our eyes from floodlights and watch crappy bands play crappy music to prevent us from acting belligerent—as if those two are mutually exclusive.
I remember when they first introduced Freakfest. I was a freshman, so I had no reason not to drop $10 to watch perennial panty waists Lifehouse suck up the Capitol Square in skeleton face paint. I didn't stay long, but I went back the next year. And the year after.
It's hard not to, you know? I have friends who have parties, sure, and Kyle Sparks would have loved to have stuck around all night. But penguins get claustrophobic, and my friend helped me get in for free.
Freakfest is cool because you get to see a bunch of people who spent a lot more than you on their really impressive costumes.
Freakfest sucks because there's nothing to do but look at a bunch of people wearing costumes.
Don't get me wrong. I've seen the video. The one with the people running around on treadmills and stuff. I used to turn up ""Get Over It"" real loud when I was driving with my mom in middle school. I used to (and often still) do the same for last year's band, Third Eye Blind. But if there's one lesson Third Eye Blind taught me, it's that seeing a band at Freakfest sucks, no matter how much a band only sort of sucks.
What I'm trying to say is there's little reason to go to Freakfest. But this isn't the catastrophe it seems like. There are plenty of places around town that throw down for Halloween, and you're more likely to hear someone playing ""Debris Slide"" at any few of these alternatives.
Both the Frequency and the High Noon Saloon are hosting Halloween parties that feature local bands posing as big-name acts.
The Frequency's party Saturday night features a fresh collection of can't-miss covers––lesser known acts dressing up as and performing the songs of classic artists. All Murder fittingly lines up as the Misfits, Orphan Bloom might be shirtless as Soundgarden and El Valiente will play pop music's best set list as Pavement—all for half the price of its adjacent block party.
High Noon's party spans both Friday and Saturday. The Friday slate features the Nod covering Pearl Jam, Sean Michael Dargan's All Star Band crooning as the Cure, and what I assume will be the most awesome set of the weekend when the Dark Clan perform songs by Big Black.
Their Saturday includes Whitney Mann as Loretta Lynn/Patsy Cline, the Honey Slides likely chugging beers onstage as Guided by Voices, and the Usual Things taking on the past decade's most prolific two-some, The White Stripes.
The major elephant in the room is that both of these shows are restricted to 21-and-uppers. That's not the case with Saturday's show at der Rathskeller, though, and Mayer Hawthorne's set will likely be the best of them all. It's free, all ages, and with a 7:30 p.m. start time, Hawthorne's smooth, Motown-centric R&B is the best place to loosen up before your Halloween Saturday—no matter where you go afterward.
