Photo: Boo!

It's Halloween, so I thought I'd throw some cute at you, loyal readers. That's "Boo! The Ghost Boy" on the left and "Wonderella."

What you do on Halloween is a real indicator for where you are in life. When you're a kid (see candy-addled preK-types above), it's all about getting candy, 100%. Eventually at you become image conscious, the costume becomes important, too. Shortly thereafter, Halloween means being out by yourself with friends after dark and somehow shaving cream and toilet paper serve as metaphors for the absolute ridiculousness of teenage suburbia.

For me, Halloween took on its full import when I went to college and was fully immersed in seeing live music. That started a good decade long endeavor of seeing some absolutely amazing live shows on and around Halloween. For a lot of people, this is when Halloween started to mean getting wasted and potentially getting laid, but for me it meant scraping together the dimes for trips to Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans and similarly exotic locales:

• 1992: Phish at Boston Garden (10/30)
• 1994: Phish in Glens Falls
  
• 1995: Phish in Chicago
  
• 1996: Phish in Atlanta
  
• 1997: Panic in NOLA
  
• 1998: Phish in Vegas
• 1999: Panic run in NOLA
  
• 2000: Panic run in NOLA
  
• 2000: MMW on 10/31
  
• 2001: Panic in Chicago
  
• 2003: Panic at MSG

In fact (if I may reminisce), appropriately it was 10 years ago tonight that I saw what may very well have been Phish show #1 of 128 for me -- the Remain In Light show at the Omni in Atlanta. Amazingly, this was one show where "Front Row Ned" was just about as far from the stage as you could get. I remember straining to see what was going on during the Overload (pictured to the right), because there was some wacky shit going down. Something about this show, the T-Heads set in particular was just so above and beyond what the previous Halloweens had done -- as sick as those were, from the front row especially. This is pretty much the show that launched the deep funk for Phish the next couple of years. 10 years, damn!!

Of course, after that phase, things kind of come full circle with a twist when you start bringing your own kids out trick or treating. Which is what I've been doing the past couple years. This time around I hope to mix a little chocolate with my peanut butter and do a little T-or-T > live music (MMW/Sharon Jones). If I make it to the city, full report, of course.