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A well attended soiree at the Leaf Café saw the bands and the attendees put in an admirable effort to don Hallowe’en garb for the evening.
The Wild Eyes up first, bedecked in black robes with crow’s masks onstage in front of the blood red curtains were on scincillating form.
How Does it Feel to Feel? and Frustration volleyed off the stage as a Grim Reaper with matching plastic scythe set about finding new victims in the front rows of the crowd.
Mephisto waltzing off with the title for most memorable costume however was event organiser Dom Newton.
Bedecked in red bishops robes, inspired by the diabolical portrayal of Cardinal Richelau in Ken Russell’s histrionic horror classic The Devils, the bluesman’s material was custom made for the event.
The costume was entirely apt, as Newton deals in The Devil’s Music, formulated by Robert Johnson and carried on the generations by successions of bluesman including Keith Richards and Jimmy Page.
Renounced by many musicians, only for it to keep calling them back, Newton had the same charismatic pull over the audience.
I Am Austin were responsible for turning in one of the most memorable gigs at Liverpool Sound City 2010 by literally making the bar in Mojo shake. Eighteen months on and happily nothing has changed.
Juxtaposing sludgy bass guitar riffs with thudding beats drawn equally from rock and dance, the two-piece achieved the same kind of racket as a 747 at take off.
Led by drummer/vocalist Mitch, the duo hurtled through Stripper and the non-more apt Zombie Town with swirling white noise provided by the plethora of FX pedals at riffman Adam’s feet.
After bludgeoning the audience into submission, the two piece launched their drumkit into the crowd just to prove their performance was truly over.
On last, The Lucid Dream’s sinister psychedelia, best sampled on the spidery Devil Rides Out was in rude health.
Bridging the gap between black clad Mary Chain style rock and the persuasive thud of the dancefloor, the band were near-perfect to conclude a black mass on All Hallow’s Eve.
Photos by Marie Hazelwood