Ferndale Bands Summoned for Epic Halloween Party

Last year it was a “... grand experiment that may only happen once."

But behold...

Another full moon, another resurrecting-lightning-bolt, the unstoppable undead-themed Halloween party, Theatre Bizarre - an enveloping evening of incredible scale, nightmare-never-neverland vision and inter-dimensional proportions - is returning to the Masonic Temple on October 20.

The legendary (yes legendary, go Google it, oh ye uninitiated...) “dusk till dawn” outdoor masquerade /freak/goth- rock-n-roll carnival was started a dozen years ago by multifaceted graphic artist (and exceptional on-the-fly carpenter) John Dunivant, in the backyard of collaborator Ken Poirer, beside the original Michigan State Fair Grounds.

In 2010, they were shut down by the city for various code violations (pyrotechnics and make-shift rollercoasters are, indeed, daring), so they floated over to the Fillmore Theatre and kept the party going.

In 2011, they set down initially tentative stakes into the Masonic Temple and constructed a multi-floor fun-house of different aesthetics, auras and freaky furnishings, assembling their most ambitious line up yet. Their staging, and the building, are still standing to this day...(or at least could be replaced...including their own Ferris Wheel!). So, let's throw another one!

This is one of those events that inevitably requires that contemporary cliche of: "...something like this could ONLY happen in a place like Detroit," (i.e., an energetic and healthy underground arts community).

Dunivant, finding renewed inspiration in the inherently shadowy origins of the Masons, embraced a Secret Society aesthetic, Templum Belatro (“Temple of the Fool”), has declared a great Summoning – indeed, summoning 40 unique bands, performers and curiosities, ranging rock, punk, performance-art, to bluegrass and burlesque.

Tickets are available in Ferndale at the Rust Belt Market and Detroit Comics. They're priced at $65 - higher than your normal gig but mind you, you’re essentially getting the down-the-rabbit-hole experience; soul-quaking, past-midnight-promenades of fancy psychedelic exhilaration; costumes mandatory!

Find more info at theatrebizarre.com.

Watch for your neighbors: Bars of Gold,
The Hounds Below, Child Bite, Fur-
playing amid the gargantuan line up.

The Hounds Below just released their first full length album (last weekend at the Loving Touch) and Child Bite have a 7” coming out on Oct. 25 cataloging four seminal punk cover songs (Dead Kennedys and Misfits) and featuring other locals like Golden Torso - part of an American Hardcore tribute series. - More on that in the next Trip.

Dig some sounds: Fur via video (above) and Bars of Gold (who just wrapped their second album with no tentative release date as of yet) -streaming below.

Listen: Bars of Gold - "The Hustle" 

Until the next Trip… ~Ready thyself for the Zombie Apocalypse! You’re either with us or against us! (And if you’re with us, you’ll have a good time – because really, we just wanna dance until we drop!) Zombie Dance Party coming soon!