Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Allhallows Eve

Halloween always brings the freak out of most folks, and this year was no different. With the scariest holiday on the calendar falling on a Friday night this year, the parties and costume contests happening all over town were too numerous to mention, much less to be able to hit them all. So for the sake of convenience, the Old City was a great destination if you wanted to take in many of the ghoulish sights and sounds of Halloween.

Some of the most incredible costumes belonged to the two different characters dressed up as SpongeBob SquarePants, the group dressed as Shriners (complete with their tiny parade cars!), the Storm Troopers, and the skinniest Batman and Robin these eyes have ever seen. And a special award goes to the guy who tried to ride his very large horse (a live horse...no costume!) into Manhattans amongst all of the ghouls and goblins. Needless to say, the horse got spooked, and that was one cowboy who never got to belly up to the Manhattans' bar.

The most interesting venue in the Old City Halloween had to be The Freakers Ball at Fiction/Tonic. Seeing a man dressed up as Jesus, stigmata and all, dancing to the beats of DJ Alfred at Tonic was quite a sight. But the Freakers Ball costume contest was quite an event. Co-sponsored by Metro Pulse, there were three separate contests at 10 p.m., midnight, and 2 a.m., each drawing a wide variety of costumes.

The Freakers Ball has always been known to attract some very risqué outfits, and this year was no different. But it was the reaction of Knoxville's finest to the actions of some of those whose garb looked like they stepped out of a porno horror flick that was interesting. Some of the contestants went a bit too far "acting out" their parts, if you will, and that is when Johnny Law would step in and stop the role playing. One incident involved a man dressed as a "stimulated Priest" (the strap-on dildo being the stimulated part), grabbing a scantily clad young gal and beginning to act out the bump-n-grind on the more-than-willing lady. It only took about three seconds of this for Knoxville's finest to rush the stage, and "convince" the Priest to stop doing the do in public, even if it was only acting.

Club security followed suit, and both the cops and the club security did a respectable job of stopping the lascivious acts from playing out, even amongst boos and jeers from the crowd. Some remarked that it looked like some of the boys in blue liked what they were seeing, even if they did take action to stop it. Stay tuned for Halloween 2004...

Go.

Thursday: Sleep

Friday: Party like it's 1939 (you know, when the economy was shit and war just around the corner)! With the Streamliners at Fairbanks.

Saturday: It's amazing that Knoxville gets to hear a songwriter of Malcolm Holcomb's quality so often. At Barley's.

Sunday: Tomorrow is Monday, and you're going to feel like hell anyway, so you might as well go drink Schlitz at the Pilot Light tonight and listen to loud rock music by the Cougars, Ampline and Huffstedler.

Monday: an dein Gesicht kann ich mich nicht erinnern/ doch deine H�nde sind mir vertraut/ am Morgen wirst du mich als Diener oder als Liebhaber aufwecken/ je nachdem was ich will/ im Dunkeln haben wir keine Geheimnisse/ ich werde Deine Prinzessin vom Mars sein

Tuesday: One of them has a long beard; the other is the coolest and kindest person in Knoxville. Hear them play at the Pilot Light.

Wednesday: Detroit Dave and Delaney at the Corner Lounge.

—Benny Smith, Joe Tarr