Craig Finn

Craig Finn dressing as Paul Stanley at Halloween show, encourages crowd to do the same

Craig Finn

The awesome double bill of Craig Finn (of The Hold Steady) and John K Samson (of The Weakerthans) is on tour now, with an upcoming NYC show on Halloween night (10/31) at City Winery. Craig revealed on Instagram that he and his backing band The Uptown Controllers will all be dressing up as Paul Stanley from KISS (like they did for a Halloween 2015 show in Pittsburgh), and he’s encouraging audience members to come in Paul Stanley makeup too, and will even have volunteer face painters on hand if you want to get your face done up at the show. Here’s his whole message:

It’s no secret that The Uptown Controllers and myself are big fans of Kiss. But all of us have the same favorite member of Kiss: Paul Stanley. In fact, for Halloween 2015 we all dressed as Paul Stanley for a show in Pittsburgh. We called the band ALL PAUL. We’ve decided to revisit the ALL PAUL concept for this year’s Halloween, although this year it will be called WE PAUL WANT THE SAME THINGS…

BUT ALSO, this year we would like to encourage the audience to come in Paul Stanley makeup. We will even have some volunteer face painters on hand if you want to get your face painted at the show. They will only be painting the Starchild makeup though. If you’ve already planned another costume, that is fine. but we are hoping to to create a strong PAUL environment. We want as many people involved to wear the Paul Stanley make up as we can get. Be a part of it! …

Also, worth mentioning: we will be playing a serious set similar to the other shows on the tour, just in Paul Stanley makeup. So it won’t devolve into too much silliness. Just Paul-sitivity.

Tickets for the NYC show are still available.

In November and December, The Hold Steady are doing a holiday run at Brooklyn Bowl like they did last year. Advance tickets are sold out (except a $300 VIP bowling lane for up to eight people) but limited tickets will be available at doors.

At the shows on this tour, John K Samson has been joining Craig Finn on stage during his set for a few songs, including covers of Gillian Welch’s “Wrecking Ball” and Husker Du’s “She’s A Woman (and Now He Is A Man).” Watch them do the Gillian Welch cover in Atlanta, below.

Craig Finn / John K Samson — 2017 Tour Dates
24 – Detroit, MI – The Shelter
25 – Toronto, ON – Horseshoe Tavern
27 – Buffalo, NY – The Leopard Lounge at Town Ballroom
28 – Philadelphia, PA – Milkboy Philadelphia
29 – Washington, DC – Rock & Roll Hotel
30 – Boston, MA – City Winery
31 – New York, NY – City Winery