the hum / By Bob Doran

Most Definitely

At Nocturnum it’s “Hardcore Halloween,” with two local bands in the punk-rock vein, Four Star Bravado and The Social Ills.

Jambalaya has “Halloween Horror Night” with DJ “Redrum” on the bloody wheels of steel. Pearl Lounge has a vampire theme Halloween with DJ Jsun spinning scary dance music.

Back in the Daze plays classic rock for a Halloween Party at Central Station. Bear River Casino has Eyes Anonymous, the ’80s New Wave cover band that always plays in costume. Blue Lake Casino offers a twofer: a Scary-Oke Contest in the Sapphire Palace (think “Monster Mash”), and NightHawk playing blues/rock over in the Wave Lounge.

Sal’s Myrtlewood Lounge has been quiet of late, but they’re opening up for Halloween with the country rock band Austin Alley and The Rustlers.

The Riverwood Inn has St. John and the Sinners, declared “Best Band” in the Journal‘s Best Of reader’s poll. And elsewhere in SoHum, KMUD and the Mateel join forces for the annual Halloween Boogie with Ozomatli and Lateef the Truthspeaker (from the above-mentioned Solesides crew). See the calendar for details on that one.

There’s also a piece in the calendar about various other non-musical Halloweeny events, mostly stuff for families, but also including the truly creepy Kinetic Haunted Lab (running from Wednesday through Saturday) and a “sexy” Screamery Freak Show at Redwood Raks.

Anyone else remember The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show? It included a series of excursions by Mr. Peabody (a dog) and his young charge, Sherman, in the Wayback Machine, a time-travel device that took them back in history. The Waybacks, a Bay Area-based quartet led by guitarist James Nash, are something like that machine. Perhaps because Warren Hood plays fiddle and mandolin for the band, and the bass is acoustic, they erroneously get painted with the bluegrass brush, but Nash is electric and eclectic and the excursions also take you back to Hot Club swing, Southern soul and the heyday of Led Zeppelin.

I have to admit, when I saw a poster at the Arkley Center for the first local appearance by Cherryholmes, I was confused. Dressed to the nines all in white, the group seemed to be led by a ZZ Top wannabe, or perhaps a cleaned up version of Mr. Natural. Either way, he was surrounded by youngsters. I learned later that the bearded one is Jere Cherryholmes, bassist for a family bluegrass band that includes his wife, Sandy Lee, and their kids, MollyKate, Cia Leigh, Skip and BJ. Jere and Sandy Lee had played some Celtic music, but a few years ago, after they took the family to a bluegrass festival, they decided to try that instead. Apparently it worked. The International Bluegrass Music Association declared them Entertainers of the Year for 2005 and an eponymous album for Skaggs Family Records took home a Grammy as “Best Bluegrass Album” of 2006. Cherryholmes returns to the Arkley Center Wednesday, Nov. 4. Please leave your costumes at home.

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