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Gonzo Report: RFTC goes full Monster Mash at House of Blues
Halloween came a week early this year
Rocket from the Crypt (RFTC) is so synonymous with Halloween performances that they should receive a royalty check every time someone carves a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. The final show of their initial run was in 2005 at the Casbah’s annual Halloween bash (then held at The Westin hotel downtown) and the tradition is still running strong in 2025. The venue of choice this year was the House of Blues (HOB) downtown.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina BFDs Superchunk took the stage first at around 8 pm. The pairing of these acts was no coincidence; the two bands have ties that go back decades. RFTC frontman John Reis produced the third Superchunk album, On the Mouth, back in 1992, and their longtime drummer, Jon Wurster, played drums on RFTC’s 2001 album, Group Sounds. The attire for both bands was Halloween costumes — a full week before the actual holiday. With Superchunk, we got a skeleton on vocals/guitar, a nun on bass, a priest on drums and (maybe) a zombie on second guitar? The sound was the pristine, guitar-intensive '90s indie rock that only seems to get better with age — age being something that 58-year-old band leader Mac McCaughan seems to defy altogether. Watching him screaming and jumping around the stage, you would figure he was 20 years younger. It seemed appropriate that their final song of an energetic opening set was titled “Hyper Enough.”
One downside to seeing a packed show at the House of Blues is that sightlines can get tough when the room is at or approaching capacity. The floor has a strange design: it’s kind of like a shoebox wherein the stage is planted on one of the longer sides. We watched most of Superchunk’s performance from the back with somewhat obscured views, so we made sure to move up for the RFTC set. Once we were closer, I noticed that there didn’t seem to be too many costumed attendees. But there were a few zombies and skeletons, and even a Slash (minus his sidekick Axl) sighting. I would guess that maybe 10-20 percent of those present came in sporting costumes. I chalked the low numbers up to the fact that since Halloween would be the following Friday, most people figured dressing up this weekend was jumping the gun too much. I was on the ropes about wearing my standby costume from the past three or four years (Sloth from The Goonies), but was glad I passed, since one of the few other costumes in our vicinity was another Sloth, this one sporting a pirate’s hat (an excellent additional detail that my version lacks). In the end, I was glad Wandering around the club as a second-banana Sloth would have been humiliating.
RFTC’s set offered the standard, garage-rocking, punk-tinged excellence that this city has come to expect annually on or around October 31. The costume theme for the band was monster mash, so we got plays on werewolves, Dracula, mummies, and Frankenstein. The clear-cut winner for me, though, was their drummer, who had stuffed some enormous object into the back of his shirt for a full-bore with a hunchback Quasimodo look. I don’t know what it is, but there is just something about watching a hunchback playing the drums that is endlessly hysterical.
That being said, I asked my drumming concert-mate, Brendan Ruff from Super Buffet, how tough it would be to actually play a full set while sporting a costume like this. He said, “I am not certain that drummer was uncomfortable. His arms were unencumbered, but it did give the impression that he was hunched over (which was the point). I think he leaned forward primarily to follow Reis' movements and so know when it was time to lead the band into the next section or song. His drumming was flawless. From the machine gun snare beats to the fast eighth notes he played on that big kick drum, he was amazing.”
Expanding on the costume theme, it was fun to occasionally glance over and watch the live feed of the show on the flat screen TV that was set up near us. The grainy quality of the video made it feel like I was watching a musical performance on one of those weird, low-budget '50s horror movies that they would run late-night on local UHF stations when I was younger.
My good deed during RFTC’s set was swapping spots with a woman right behind me after I noticed she was having issues seeing the band due to my somewhat enormous frame. If you are over six feet tall at a general admission show, you should always be aware of the views you are blocking. Just don’t allow everyone to switch spots with you until you are at the very back of the floor — BECAUSE THAT’S TOTAL BULLSHIT! There is a fine line between being kind and getting played, and sometimes at shows you just have to stand your ground.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Gonzo Report: RFTC goes full Monster Mash at House of Blues
Halloween came a week early this year
Gonzo Report: RFTC goes full Monster Mash at House of Blues
Halloween came a week early this year
Rocket from the Crypt (RFTC) is so synonymous with Halloween performances that they should receive a royalty check every time someone carves a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. The final show of their initial run was in 2005 at the Casbah’s annual Halloween bash (then held at The Westin hotel downtown) and the tradition is still running strong in 2025. The venue of choice this year was the House of Blues (HOB) downtown.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina BFDs Superchunk took the stage first at around 8 pm. The pairing of these acts was no coincidence; the two bands have ties that go back decades. RFTC frontman John Reis produced the third Superchunk album, On the Mouth, back in 1992, and their longtime drummer, Jon Wurster, played drums on RFTC’s 2001 album, Group Sounds. The attire for both bands was Halloween costumes — a full week before the actual holiday. With Superchunk, we got a skeleton on vocals/guitar, a nun on bass, a priest on drums and (maybe) a zombie on second guitar? The sound was the pristine, guitar-intensive '90s indie rock that only seems to get better with age — age being something that 58-year-old band leader Mac McCaughan seems to defy altogether. Watching him screaming and jumping around the stage, you would figure he was 20 years younger. It seemed appropriate that their final song of an energetic opening set was titled “Hyper Enough.”
One downside to seeing a packed show at the House of Blues is that sightlines can get tough when the room is at or approaching capacity. The floor has a strange design: it’s kind of like a shoebox wherein the stage is planted on one of the longer sides. We watched most of Superchunk’s performance from the back with somewhat obscured views, so we made sure to move up for the RFTC set. Once we were closer, I noticed that there didn’t seem to be too many costumed attendees. But there were a few zombies and skeletons, and even a Slash (minus his sidekick Axl) sighting. I would guess that maybe 10-20 percent of those present came in sporting costumes. I chalked the low numbers up to the fact that since Halloween would be the following Friday, most people figured dressing up this weekend was jumping the gun too much. I was on the ropes about wearing my standby costume from the past three or four years (Sloth from The Goonies), but was glad I passed, since one of the few other costumes in our vicinity was another Sloth, this one sporting a pirate’s hat (an excellent additional detail that my version lacks). In the end, I was glad Wandering around the club as a second-banana Sloth would have been humiliating.
RFTC’s set offered the standard, garage-rocking, punk-tinged excellence that this city has come to expect annually on or around October 31. The costume theme for the band was monster mash, so we got plays on werewolves, Dracula, mummies, and Frankenstein. The clear-cut winner for me, though, was their drummer, who had stuffed some enormous object into the back of his shirt for a full-bore with a hunchback Quasimodo look. I don’t know what it is, but there is just something about watching a hunchback playing the drums that is endlessly hysterical.
That being said, I asked my drumming concert-mate, Brendan Ruff from Super Buffet, how tough it would be to actually play a full set while sporting a costume like this. He said, “I am not certain that drummer was uncomfortable. His arms were unencumbered, but it did give the impression that he was hunched over (which was the point). I think he leaned forward primarily to follow Reis' movements and so know when it was time to lead the band into the next section or song. His drumming was flawless. From the machine gun snare beats to the fast eighth notes he played on that big kick drum, he was amazing.”
Expanding on the costume theme, it was fun to occasionally glance over and watch the live feed of the show on the flat screen TV that was set up near us. The grainy quality of the video made it feel like I was watching a musical performance on one of those weird, low-budget '50s horror movies that they would run late-night on local UHF stations when I was younger.
My good deed during RFTC’s set was swapping spots with a woman right behind me after I noticed she was having issues seeing the band due to my somewhat enormous frame. If you are over six feet tall at a general admission show, you should always be aware of the views you are blocking. Just don’t allow everyone to switch spots with you until you are at the very back of the floor — BECAUSE THAT’S TOTAL BULLSHIT! There is a fine line between being kind and getting played, and sometimes at shows you just have to stand your ground.
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