2016 NYC Halloween events: Village Parade, dog parade, cover band shows, World Inferno Friendship Society & more

It’s October in NYC and that means loads of Halloween events, first and foremost being the 2016 Village Halloween Parade which, of course, happens on October 31 along 6th Ave from 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM. This is the 43rd edition of the parade and this year’s theme is “Reverie.” You can be in it, the only stipulation is you must be in costume and the lineup starts at 6:30 PM at 6th Ave at Canal St. You can also watch the Village Halloween Parade live on NY1.

Before that is the annual Tompkins Square Park Halloween Dog Parade which happens Saturday, October 22 from noon – 3 PM. There will be a runway competition at noon, just show up to enter ($5 donation) and there are “thousands of dollars in prizes” to be won in different canine costume competitions.

On the music tip, there are a number of notable Halloween-related shows, including  The Mummies playing two shows at Music Hall of Williamsburg on October 26 (late show tickets still available); The B-52’s “Halloween Scream” at Webster Hall on October 29 (tickets); GWAR, Mutoid Man and Darkest Hour at House of VANS on October 29; and punk/goth greats The Damned at Gramercy Theater on October 29 & 30 (sold out).

On Halloween proper, your show options include: Stranger Things soundtrack makers S U R V I V E at Good Room (sold-out),  A Place to Bury Strangers will play Brooklyn Bazaar  (tickets); Quintron & Miss Pussycat at Baby’s All Right (tickets), Shonen Knife at Knitting Factory (tickets), and World Inferno Friendship Society will hold their annual Hollowmas concert extravaganza at Warsaw (tickets); Zomby, Jack Donoghue (of witch house progenitors Salem), Doss, Vixen Stepsister, and Team 38 will be at China Chalet (tickets);  and lots more.

For those who like goth and coldwave, you might want to head to Gateway on October 29 for Xeno & Oaklander, Bootblacks, Liste Noire, Vasillus, Dead Leaf Echo (DJ Set), Lauren Flax, and Katie Rex (tickets).

There are also loads of “cover” shows happening with bands pretending to be other bands. One of the coolest happens as part of the Sally Can’t Dance party at Bowery Electric on October 27 that will be a tribute to The Cramps. The lineup is killer, featuring actual onetime Cramps member Kid Congo Powers but also Suicide’s Martin Rev, Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore), Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello, Miriam Linna, Palmyra Delran, Mick Collins, Jesse Malin, and more! Tickets are on sale.

Meanwhile at Cake Shop on October 28 it’s the “Crumpton’s Haunted Ball for The Recently Departed: 1866-1996” which looks to be quite the affair:

Perfomances and tributes by the likes of:
a resurrected GG ALLIN (!) // THE MISFITS (in skeleton regalia) // BELLE & SEBASTIAN (all alive and honored to play such an event) // VELVET UNDERGROUND // THE SEEDS //
// THE LEFT BANKE // THE BEATLES // LOVE // and MUCH MUCH MORE // (early) BEE GEES // DUDLEY MOORE and PETER COOK //
plus dark tunes by the likes of THE KINKS // BURT BACHERACH // ROKY ERICKSON // THE ZOMBIES and MUCH MORE !!

The next night (10/29) at Cake Shop its Gimme Tinnitus’ Halloween party with Violent Threat (Violent Femmes/Minor Threat mashup performed by My Teenage Stride), Clean Girls as Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Stringer as Operation Ivy, THICK as Misfits, Fraidycat as The Breeders, and Rat’s Mouth as Pixies ($10 at the door but discounted if you come in costume).

And on Halloween proper it’s another covers show, with Grey Cats as The Cure, Caesar Clearwater Revival (Del Caesar doing CCR), Stupid is as Stupid Does (Forest Gump Soundtrack as performed by Space Merchants), and Buns ‘n Posers (Guns n Roses covers by members of The Black Black, Del Caesar, Sirs & Madams). $5 with costume, $10 without. Flyer below.

Sam Kogon, who has played with The Left Banke and Al Jardine, will perform with help from Dictionary Attack as “ELO Unplugged” at Ridgewood’s The Footlight on October 28 with a bill of otherwise non-cover bands — Raccoon Fighter, Harvey Eyeballs, and Language. $8 at the door ($5 in costume), more info here.

Still more cover shows: at The Gateway on October 27 you can see Del Caesar (as Ceasar Clearwater Revival), No Ice (Bruce Springsteen & The E St Band), The Black Black (as Guns n Roses), and Bodega (as The Silver Jews). $8 at the door and more info is here.

At The Glove on October 30 you can see Stringer (as Operation Ivy), Slonk Donkerson (reprising their Steely Dan set from a couple weeks ago), Yucky Duster (as The Shrek Soundtrack), and Poppies (as The Zombies). That show is $6 at the door and more info is here.

Motion Studies, who performed last year as Hall & Oates, this year take on David Bowie at Union Pool on October 29 which is a free show. Over at Brooklyn Bazaar on 10/29 they’re hosting NYC’s finest metal Beegees tribute act, Tragedy ($10 at the door). Brooklyn Bazaar has a full HalloWeek planned and you can check out all the events (many are free) in it’s flyer, below.

Lastly, on the covers tip, Shea Stadium will do it up with two shows: On Devil’s Night (10/30) with Big Ups as Rage Against the Machine, Two Inch Astronaut as Third Eye Blind,  Fern Mayo as The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and members of Speedy Ortiz, Grass is Green, Stove, Ian Sweet, and more as “Devtones” (tickets); and then on Halloween Night  you can catch Charly Bliss as Josie and the Pussycats, Emily Reo as Carly Rae Jepsen, Pouty (as Madonna, and Sharpless as Kate Bush (tickets).

If you’re in the mood to dance, DFA Records is taking over Good Room on October 28 for “Ghost Dog No. 1” featuring various members of their roster on DJ duty plus live performances to be announced. Tickets are on sale. And at Warsaw on 10/29 its a Halloween edition of indie pop party “Dance Yourself Clean” (tickets).

Jonathan Toubin’s annual Halloween Night Train “Monster Mash vs Haunted Hop” which happens Halloween night at The Knockdown Center. Tickets are on sale and it sounds like a real blowout:

7PM to 11PM
MONSTER MASH
go early for your favorite bands dressing and playing live as their favorite bands:
45 Grave
Alice Cooper
Black Sabbath
Bobby Pickett
Christian Death
The Cramps
The Damned
Danzig
Dio
King Diamond
Lord Sutch
The Mummies
Ray Parker Junior
Roky Erickson
Screamin Jay
Siouxsie
Slayer
Type O Negative
Rocky Horror Picture Show Time Warp Dance Contest!!

11pm – LATE
THE HAUNTED HOP!!!
stay late for dancing to the Haunted 45’s of DJ Jonathan Toubin / New York Night Train, special guest Josh Styles, DEMON GOGO DANCERS; live visuals by B.A. Miale, and special surprises…

MIDNIGHT COSTUME CONTEST!
Prizes very generously provided by:
Littleneck
REBEL ROUSER
Metropolis Vintage
MAIN DRAG MUSIC

Jonathan’s got a new Halloween mix that you can listen to (and check out the “Monster Mash vs Haunted Hop” flyer) below.

For something a little different, musically there’s the “BLü3 Rø$e CoV3Ñ ☾
☠☠☠ Halloween Gathering” on Halloween at Tarot Society & Reading Room (4 Charles Pl, Brooklyn) which is a free event with Dj Tom Casper (((Foodstamps))), Dj ipadduben, Songs for the Spirits, Doorways de lesphinxx, Navarretia, Rebekah Luna, and Catrina Calavera (more info).

Over at the Morbid Anatomy Musuem on October 28, they’ll be showing a 16mm print of 1925 horror classic The Phantom of the Opera with a live score by Underworld Oscillator Corporation (tickets). As you might expect, the Morbid Anatomy Museum really goes wild for Halloween and there’s all sorts of spooky, icky events, including many about Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebration. Check out their October calendar.

As mentioned, Nitehawk in Williamsburg is showing all sorts of horror movies this month, and Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn will open just in time to show some freaky Asian horror films, but they’re not your only movie choices. BAMcinématek will host from October 21 – November 3  the “13 Cats” film series featuring a baker’s dozen of feline-related (mostly) frights: Kiki’s Delivery Service, nutso Japanese film Hausu, Ju-on: The Grudge, The Tomb of Ligeia, Cat’s Eye, Eye of the Cat, Two Evil Eys, Kuroneko, My Neighbor Totoro, both Val Lewton’s 1942 classic Cat People and Paul Schrader’s kinky ’80s remake, plus The Black Cat, and The Shadow of the Cat. Tickets to these screenings are on sale now.

Over at Videology Bar & Cinema, they’re hosting a whole month’s worth of horror events, including a Stranger Things dance party on October 29, Scream trivia on October 30 and Nosferatu with a live score on Halloween proper. They’ve also got screenings of Alien, The Craft, Cabin in the Woods, Death Becomes Her, Dario Argento’s Phenomena and Suspiria, and more this month.]

Bushwick’s Syndicated has a whole host of Halloween programming, including screenings of Poltergeist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Ringu, The Babadook, Hellraiser, and more.

What did we miss? Meanwhile, enjoy some classic ’80s goth below: