Tonight I’m here for my monthly fix of arts and crafts, a few bands, a few beers, all combined with the excuse to dress up in a glamourous Halloween costume. It was shaping up to a good night.
I arrived early to help decorate the room, and got straight in with mastering the fine art of making a balloon ghost, - adding mine to the collection of spooky faced helium balloons lingering eerily at eye level, weighed down by strips of paper we’ve taped to them.
I’m one of a few witches at the party, so I stop by the face painting table to get a spider web painted on, and grab a temporary tattoo of a cheery looking skeleton.
The centrepiece of the room is the heart framed backdrop for the stage, and its glitteringly kitsch silver curtain. After DJ Kisschase has played some ‘spooky’ tunes, our host Lloyd Moondog gets up onstage to announce the first band THE MICHELLES, by rapping out an impromptu intro over their jamming, and using the word ‘spooky’ a lot. Bless.
The Michelles play out their upbeat tunes that are a sweet combination of pop, rock, and are easy to dance to. My personal favourites are ‘Sober Rain’, ‘Springtime’ (the new single) and Carolina. I have to ask myself why Tim is still playing in shorts – is it some sort of statement of rebellion against the stylishness of the rest of the band? He has a line painted down the middle of this face that extends down his neck to his shirt. He later explains that he’s come dressed as the border between North and South Korea. I’m impressed.
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Pretty Swedish frontman Gustav shares some of the vocal duties with Tim and Marc, and the crowd contentedly dances around. I like these guys, and I think there’s more room for poppy rocky upbeat sounds in this town yet.
THE SWAYS are up next, and at this point I sit down and start doing a painting purely cos I never leave a Hungamunga without at least trying to paint something. There are a lot of Sways fans in the room tonight, and the band’s brilliantly twisted little folk country tunes are sounding as good as ever. Just enough shades of darkness to please us all and well suited to the quirky festive atmosphere.
The winner of the best costume is decided by a game of ‘bite the apple’. In the end ‘Little Dead Riding Hood’ manages to get the bigger bite out of the apple – which is dangling on a long string from the ceiling -, despite the ‘Teddy bear Torturer’s best efforts. Lloyd then sings his usual karaoke slot, tonight’s number being ‘The Monster Mash’ while we blast kazoos and other silly things. Quite organised chaos you might say. And good messy fun. All I can remember after that is a lot of dancing. When people finally try to leave, more good songs keep coming on. And that, can only be a good thing.
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