A Galactic Halloween

For three of the past four years, the New Orleans based jazz-funk-jam group Galactic has played a Halloween concert at Stubb's. I have been to all three of these and each time the group brings a new dynamic and the crowds seem to do the same.

This year, Charlie Tuna of Jurassic 5 and Mr. Lif, two well-known hip-hop artists, joined Galactic on stage for most of the concert and brought a whole new expereince to their annual Halloween show. The mixing of the two musical styles made for an eclectic crowd with audience members who had no idea who Galactic was or who Charlie Tuna and Mr. Lif were. The musicians struck an alomst perfect harmony together that had the entire crowd moving, screaming and begging for more the entire show.

The costumes, of course, were another highlight of the show. Each year, they have a Halloween costume contest where the winner is given a $500 prize. Typically, the contest is held at set break but this year it came before the concert so I missed the winner. But in the audience I caught a glimpse of some great costumes: Vincent Vega, a group going as Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach and a sad emo kid (yours truly) were some of the costume hightligts of the night.

The show was right on par and the audience did there best to behave themselves amidst the excitement of the evening. I look forward to repeating this now Austin tradtion next Halloween and would recommend it to anyone who is willing to pay $20 for a night of constant entertainment: be it the music, the costumes or the overall enthusiasm of the crowd.