These days, Halloween appears to be about little more than carved pumpkins, trick-or-treating and crappy supermarket merchandise. But the event is actually a modern version of the Celtic harvest festival, and aside from honouring the dead, this pagan party was an excellent excuse to let the wine, and music, flow freely.
In the Bacchanalian spirit of the occasion, a rabble of rocking Melbourne bands and a raucous Halloween-costumed crowd have gathered for The Espy’s annual Drunken Moon Festival.
Local groups La Bastard, Yard Apes, and The Drunken Poachers kick off the celebrations, scattered throughout The Espy’s many darkened, rambling bandrooms in the style of a musical haunted house.
On the mezzanine level, a geisha, a naughty nurse and a horny devil are grooving to Digger And The Pussycats’ supercharged garage rock.
The band, aka guitarist Sam and drummer Andy, are a whirlwind of crashing cymbals and sharp jabbing riffs.
A frenetic version of “I Want You”, complete with high-kicks from Andy, has the audience in a lather – so much so that the duo pause midway through the song to hand a bolt back to a Frankenstein whose dancing has presumably dislodged it from his green-painted head.
Meanwhile, on the main stage, Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk is taking a noisy, squawking stroll, with the guitarist shuffling across the stage on his knees whilst playing a dirty, slinking blues riff.
Down in the basement, however, is where the most raucous revelry is taking place. The jumble of musicians that is Mesa Cosa are unleashing their Mexican fiesta trash punk on an enthused audience.
Frontman Pedro Alvarado may be small in stature but when he’s howling a mouthful of Spanish/English into the microphone like a man possessed, he’s a commanding presence.
Especially when he’s dressed in full camouflage gear with war paint streaked across his face and a pith helmet atop his curly locks.
Mesa Cosa are an assault of guitars, clattering drums and shouted vocals. The lyrics are more or less unintelligible, but when the music is this damn great, it’s little matter.
The group thrash out “Los Perros” and “Day Of The Dead” with chanting vocals and a rambunctious guitar solo.
The Tarantino-esque “Cricket”, which the group introduce as “kind of a Halloween song”, flaunts its horror movie swagger through a prowling drumbeat and trembling four-note rhythm.
“Brujha” is a series of frightening cries – Brujha!/Brujha!/Brujha! – amid the chaos of the musicians’ antics, as they clamber on top of amps, perch precariously on the bass drum mid-song, and at one point, abscond into the crowd.
The pace is breakneck, the volume is merciless and the energy is stratospheric.
Post coital Mesa Cosa orgy, Digger and The Pussycats have again taken to the mezzanine stage for their second set.
They blitz through a handful of cracking tracks, including “Cut Me Loose”, with the hammering drumming building a house of spit-fire rock and roll.
Back down in the basement, ear plugs are definitely required when the squalling guitars of Batpiss fill the room.
The three piece, who play with stocking-clad faces, draw a patchy crowd. Their fast-paced, metal heavy sound is perhaps just a touch too serious for tonight’s Dionysian revellers.
As the hour gets later, the mood keeps growing wilder, and Brothers Grim, the last act to take to the main stage, are in a mischievous mood.
Dressed like extras from an episode of True Blood, James Grim’s bushy beard and tattooed biceps are resplendent against his blonde bobbed wig and pink housewife’s dress, while Dominic Lindus slaps away at the double bass dressed in denim hotpants, pigtails and fishnet stockings.
James’ growling vocals and brother Matt Grim’s warped, sawing steel guitar stitch together the group’s devilish delta blues.
If the sight of the gruff, bearded frontman in drag isn’t strange enough, at one point he dons a Mexican wrestling mask borrowed from a member of the crowd, and has the audience whooping and hollering along in glee.
Halloween may be about the dead, but tonight this rambling house of punk, garage, rockabilly and blues has been bursting with laughter and life.
