Halloween Zombie Apocalypse at The Mad Hatter - Why I love Cincinnati Music

[Amber Waves]

Mad Hatter was home to last night's Halloween Zombie Apocalypse, and the show featured 13 or so local bands, along with a chainsaw wielding zombie killer performance (lots of blood splattering occurred, let me tell you), a fire baton and sword throwing show, a multi-artist collaborative mural (which was AWESOME), and a raffle fund-raiser that benefited Dogs Deserve Better (a NKY dog rescue organization - such nice people, by the way).

The place was packed all night until 3:00 a.m. (2:00 a.m., if you count Daylight Savings Time), the beer flowed like wine, and I've never seen so many cool, creative, creepy, crazy and colorful costumes in one place in a VERY long time (Hey, Guy In a Suit Simply Wearing a Giant Horse Head Playing Guitar for The Humans Museum? Yeah, you. Thanks for freaking me out all night.)

The theme for all bands (each band played anywhere from 1 to 4 songs), was to perform a song that would be playing if you were machine-gunning down a zombie mob. I love themes, and I wasn't disappointed in the bands' choices.... I was blown away by a few standouts:

Oso Bear - "Space Age Love Song" by A Flock of Seagulls: Perfectly awesome, weird and ironic. I'm a HUGE 80's New Wave nerd, and this song made me happier than Molly Ringwald when she found out Jake was asking about her at the dance! If "16 Candles" had zombies, this song would be on the soundtrack.

Lovely Crash - "Run Like Hell" by Pink Floyd: Lovely Crash made this song thunder and explode... THE perfect choice for a serious, big-budget, Hollywood-style zombie movie with lots of special effects. If the Marines were taking out an evil zombie army in post-apocalyptic New York City, this would be the song that played. Elle Crash, I love you.

The Humans Museum - "AM 180" by Granddaddy: This song, with its simple, child-like nursery school lyrics and haunting toy keyboard sound gets into my soul and won't leave. Plus, it was featured in the movie "28 Days Later", and I love the juxtaposition of a happy simple song against a zombie epidemic. Again, irony at its best.

Banderas - their entire performance: How can you not love a band dressed in skin-tight (and I do mean SKIN-TIGHT a/k/a I could tell who and who wasn't circumcised) Justice League costumes? Distracting superhero costumes featuring penises aside, they rocked hard (no pun intended)!

De Los Muertos (disclosure: I'm married to their bass player) - "American Nightmare" by Misfits: this is actually a regular part of their set, but it was still perfect. Veronica Grim dressed as Marie Antoinette, combined with her whiskey and cigarette soaked twangy cowboy singing voice was had everyone jumping, even at 2:30 a.m.! I could see "American Nightmare" in a zombified re-make of "Beach Blanket Bingo"

I need help on one and I feel terrible that I can't remember who it was. It was early on, and I was talking to some people and couldn't see who it was. It didn't matter in the end, because they quickly got my attention with two standout covers: Acoustic versions of "Monkey Gone to Heaven" by The Pixies and "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails. Just because I love both songs and I always appreciate it when bands put their own mark on another band's music.

I can't wait for the next multi-band theme night. The only thing I would change is that I wouldn't show up at 8:00 and stay until almost 3:00. That's a full work day! I was tired. Happy, but tired and relieved that I didn't get eaten by any zombies. Mad props to Matt Ogden for putting the whole thing together!

[Matt Ogden]

The first band was called "Z-Dogs Revenge." They did the accoustic pixies and the nin cover (I specifically requested closer). It was just a one time collaboration of Kyle Knapp from The Turkeys and his buddy Nate. I love when musicians collaborate on "one-offs" just for these shows.

Thanks for the nice words,

matt

[Amber Waves]

Thanks for the clarification Matt, and you're more than welcome for the kind words - you deserve it! ;)

[Amber Waves]

By the way, did I notice your costume was a tribute to Resident Evil? Good job, if so! :)

[Elle Crash]

Hi Amber, we love you too darlin'! thanks for the very kind words...!!! Just wanted to mention I couldn't have done it without my Lovely Crash bandmates, Brian, Bill and Brett...(who made very tall zombies indeed!) :-)

[Amber Waves]

I meant to say "Lovely Crash (smacking myself in the forehead)! and yes, I think those were the tallest zombies I've ever seen... LOL

[Steve Wethington]

Hey, awesome review. And, for the record I was the well dressed horse, and you're welcome. Who would've thought a horse would be so creepy?

thanks-
Steve

[Amber Waves]

STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just kidding... that was actually my favorite costume of the night. Simple, to the point, and effective. Speaking as a person who appreciates offbeat macabre expression, I was quite impressed, especially when you were playing guitar... LOL