Moon Taxi, the Nashville-based pop/rock band, will perform tonight at Revelry Room at the Chattanooga Choo Choo.
Lisa Denton and Barry Courter
LISA DENTON: Barry, the year’s scariest season is about to end – but not for eight more days. So let’s talk about Halloween instead.
Monday’s not prime time for parties, so I imagine most people have had their Halloween get-togethers already. Not to mention getting their scream on at haunted houses and loading up their candy bags at trunk-or-treats.
But tonight you can still go to The Haunted Hilltop on Highway 58 and to the Haunted Cavern at Ruby Falls. The Haunted Trail at the Mayfield Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch is also open in Athens, Tenn. And two towns in the area have big community events: the Halloween Block Party in Cleveland, Tenn., and Scare on the Square in LaFayette, Ga.
And then tomorrow we can start celebrating Christmas.
BARRY COURTER: What was that term we tried to coin last year to represent that it is becoming all one season? Happy Hallowthanksmas or something like that. Temperatures in the 80s and we’re talking Christmas.
Anyway, Moon Taxi is at Track 29 tonight, and You Bred Raptors? is at JJ’s Bohemia. As names taken from movies go, this one from “Jurassic Park” is not bad. Almost as interesting is that this trio from Astoria, N.Y., features eight-string electric bass, glockenspiel, cello and drums. By the way, do you think musicians call it a glock to sound tough and all? In any case, I’m betting you weren’t thinking cello and glockenspiel from that name.
LISA: Nope, not really. These guys play a lot of gigs in the NYC subway system as part of the Music Under New York program. In their press materials, they talk about how excited they were to meet actor B.D. Wong, “who famously received the line ‘You bred raptors?’ from Sam Neill in the original ‘Jurassic Park’ film.” They also wear masks as part of their shtick, so having them for a Halloween show is a big deal, I suppose.
BARRY: And, as long as we are talking bands with shtick, Mac Sabbath, a heavy-metal band that writes songs about food, mostly fast food, is at Revelry Room on Friday.
LISA: Sounds like my kind of band. I used to entertain my kids with rewritten lyrics to The Corrs’ song “Breathless.” I changed the line “leave me breathless” to “feed me breakfast.” We think about food a lot in my family.
I’ve also rewritten Christmas carols with different lyrics. Maybe I should see if they’d let me be the featured entertainment at HoHo Expo. That’s the big holiday shopping event the Times Free Press is sponsoring this weekend at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
BARRY: You did get my wishlist, right? I made copies with links to websites if you lost it.
LISA: Yes, yes, and the daily recitation is sufficient anyway.
Last year at the HoHo Expo, there were 225 booths where you could get a jumpstart on your shopping, and I think this year is lining up with the same kind of numbers. There will be booths with gifts, booths with samples, booths with clothes and makeup and other ways to make yourself look presentable. There also are booths with products to gussy up your house for guests.
My favorite vendor so far is Holes To Go Mini Golf, a portable miniature golf course you can rent for events. I figure they’ll only let me play through once, though. I may be the only golfer who’s ever yelled “Fore!” on a miniature course. I play tennis much the same way. Not just over the net but over the fence. Maybe I should dial it back on the steroids.
BARRY: Head of the Hooch, which is one of the cooler events in town, is next weekend. It is a huge rowing regatta held at the 21st Century Waterfront that features more than 2,000 boats racing over two days. It perfectly shows off how cool our riverfront and downtown are.
LISA: Seriously, seeing 2,000 boats in the water at the riverfront on a crisp fall day will make you marvel at how cool Chattanooga has become.
Get event details every Thursday in ChattanoogaNow or online anytime at www.ChattanoogaNow.com.
Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281. Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.