I don’t scare easily. When I was a child, horror movies were my favorite to watch. I would rent them year-round. As time has gone on, it takes more to scare me. I do not think I have ever been more scared than I was when I was a kid, discovering horror movies. Even though I was terrified—of my dolls coming alive to kill me, ghosts or demons hurting me, or snakes and enclosed spaces—I still wanted to experience that fright again and again.
[ELECTRONIC/DANCE] It’s not necessarily a Halloween-themed tour, but it is called the Midnight Terror Tour and it happens to be in town on Halloween, so it’s probably a safe bet that it’s a pretty good way to spend this haunted holiday. The Montreal, Quebec based electronic music trio Black Tiger Sex Machine deliver a set that they describe as “party DJ-set, part live” and which integrates samples, live drumming, and live synthesizers in a way that feels like a flowing DJ set.
[METAL] Two Buffalo-based metal bands will celebrate their tour kick off with a show on Wednesday, November 1 at Mohawk Place. Sludge metal band Nine Layers Deep and instrumental doom band HUNS will embark on an East Coast tour following the show at Mohawk Place, which will also feature hardcore punk band Pure Heel and proggy doom outfit Tines.
[INDIE] The new album from Shilpa Ray, a series of tales about working and living in New York City as an artist, feels like a theatrical experience from the album artwork to the production of the songs. Raw punk energy combines with an almost Broadway-like show tunes production throughout, especially on songs like “Morning Terrors Nights of Dread” and “Rockaway Blues.” That’s complimented by new wave and more experimental pop sounds which are woven throughout. The album is her second on the Brooklyn based avant-garde record label Northern Spy Records.
[BIKE RIDE] The postwar hangover caught by the buzzword of “urban renewal” had the direct result of cutting through miles of central parkland with asphalt and concrete, and while New York State has the power to take a small step in righting a giant wrong, their power to do so seems hemmed in by bureaucratic forces. On Sunday, an Ride the Scajaquada aims to call the state’s attention to this 3.1 mile scar through Delaware Park and over its namesake creek.
[COUNTRY] I’m not a fan of modern commercial country, but credit where it’s due: these two have a formula that speaks to more than just auto-tuned twang. Faith Hill and Tim McGraw are a musical power couple that perpetuates the myth of marital bliss—an undeniably attractive pair that have it all: looks, talent, money, and each other.
[ROCK] Guitar lessons at age 3, an appearance on Ellen at age 6, playing with Buddy Guy by age 8—you might call Quinn Sullivan a prodigy. Now 18, the New Bedford, Massachusetts native has gone on to jam with the late B.B. King, toured in the opening slot for Guy and has been invited to play on television for Oprah and Jimmy Kimmel, among others.
[ROCK] Peter Case may be thought of as a California-based musician, but he’s originally from right here in Western New York. Having dropped out of high school at 15, he traveled for several years and eventually landed in San Francisco in the early 1970s. By 1976, he emerged as a founding member of the power-pop trio The Nerves, who wrote and recorded the original version of the song “Hanging on the Telephone,” later made famous by Blondie.
[INDIE] Back in 2015, you might have caught wind of the sparkly indie-pop that characterizes “Hatcher Creek,” the debut single from Emi Night, whose Brooklyn-by-way-of-Colorado-based musical project is called Strawberry Runners. The tune caused Wired to proclaim Night and company were one of 10 bands at SXSW that “are about to blow up,” and got listed on NPR’s The Austin 100. That track and its companion piece, “When We Were Good,” echoed the breathy vocal styling of Beth Orton set against a sun-drenched, guitar-driven melodic buffet.
[PUNK] Whaddaya get when you mix the punk aesthetic with Celtic influences? Well, drunk for one thing. But you also get Flogging Molly, the L.A. based seven piece led by Dublin-born Dave King. Touring behind their sixth studio album in twenty years, Life is Good, out this past summer on Vanguard, the men of Molly come to the Rapids Theatre in Niagara Falls on Halloween, which lands on a Tuesday this year.
[HALLOWEEN] You’ll find every kind of party imaginable this Halloween weekend in Buffalo: a flashback to the 1990s, a Halloween drag show, a rave, and even a party for your pets. There’s a lot to take in, but a good place to start is here with our guide to local Halloween parties.
[SCREENING] The creation of the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River, along the border of New York State and Pennsylvania, is another discouraging chapter in the history of the US and its state governments abandoning promises and legal treaties with Native peoples, displacing them with little or no recompense, and then literally erasing whatever opportunity for reclamation might have obtained.
[MUSIC] Singer-songwriter Diane Cluck, of Charlottesville, Virginia, makes magic out of the simplest ingredients: Each separate note, each signature modulation of her voice, each emotion pulled from guitar string haunts individually, and enchants when woven together.
Ever wonder why you cannot swim for much of the summer along the Lake Erie Beaches?
You are probably aware that relatively unmitigated sewer releases have happened this summer at Niagara Falls. However, virtually every creek, river, and tributary contributes polluted runoff to the Lake Erie shoreline. This happens throughout the Great Lakes.
Gord Downie, frontman of Canadian rock band the Tragically Hip has passed away, according to a statement from his family. He was 53 years old. Last year, Downie was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. According to the statement from his family, “Gord passed away with his beloved children and family close by.”