5 Things To Do This Weekend, Oct. 28-31: Now with 100 percent more scary!

1. IT’S MY FAVORITE WEEKEND OF THE YEAR! Anyone that’s read my blog over the years knows my obsession with Halloween. We’ll get to a full roundup of events this weekend and on Monday (actual Halloween) in a moment — for now, let’s start with your usual Bangor events lineup. On Friday night, the big news is that it’s the long-awaited I Love The 90s concert at the Cross Insurance Center, featuring 90s luminaries like Salt n Pepa, Vanilla Ice, Tone Loc, All 4 One and many more. It’s also vinyl night at Nocturnem Drafthaus with DJ T-Coz, there’s rockers the Calypso Soldiers at Paddy Murphy’s, there’s blues band Danny and the Bluetones at the Sea Dog, Rocky Horror screenings at the Central Gallery at 7 and 10 p.m. (FB says it’s sold out, but check back Friday afternoon just to be sure). Up in Orono, the Intermedia Resource Center on campus at 7 p.m. hosts funk band Danny Bedrosian and Secret Army, featuring members of Parliament Funkadelic (!!), Black Bear Brewing hosts a costume party with music from the Itinerant Visitors, rockers Magnetic North are at Woodman’s, and jam band Smoked Salmon is at the Boomhouse in Old Town. On Saturday night, there’s Heavy Halloween at the Central Gallery with Maine metal and hardcore bands Give Way, Scavenger, Seize the Vatican and The Waking Life; there’s Between Dead Stations at Paddy’s, Meghan Clark at Nocturnem, hip hop DJ night at Blaze, and the Ian Black Band at the Sea Dog.

hallocrop

2. It’s also an unsurprisingly jam-packed weekend in Portland, so let’s waste no time! On Friday night, Railroad Earth and the Ghost of Paul Revere are at the State Theatre, Kat Wright and the Indomitable Soul Band and Armies are at Port City Music Hall, there’s a big bill of local bands including Five of the Eyes, Weakened Friends, KGFREEZE, Mirth and Eldemur Krimm at Portland House of Music. There’s also John Hughes Radio, Diablogato and Holy Smoke at Empire, and Langhorne Slim and the Law with Susto at One Longfellow. On Saturday, there’s all your big Halloween shows in town, including Dean Ford’s Purple Brainz Prince tribute at Port City Music Hall, The Awesome at Portland House of Music, and Space Gallery’s annual Halloween party, with Sunset Hearts as The Smiths, The Blood Caps as New Order, The English Muffins as Bikini Kill, and members of Leveret and Superorder as LCD Soundsystem. There’s also Dub Apocalypse and Gorilla Finger Dub at Empire, the Adam Ezra Group at One Longfellow, and metal from Vandalizer, Ogre and the Tarantula Brothers at Bayside Bowl. On Sunday, Jamestown Revival and Jonny Fritz are at Port City Music Hall.

3. What’s there for fun on the Midcoast? On Friday night, Rock City Coffee in Rockland hosts Willy Off the Pickle Boat, and the Unity College Center for the Performing Arts hosts John Rush, the “human iPod,” at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, Slippery Slope is at Rock City Coffee, the Shizzle is at Myrtle Street Tavern, and Diamond in the Rough are at Fog Bar, all in Rockland. On Sunday, the Strand Theatre in Rockland screens the classic “Beetlejuice” at 12:30 p.m. Across the bay, the Grand Theatre in Ellsworth hosts the final weekend of “The Producers,” and the Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor presents The Mallett Brothers Band on Saturday night.

4. Don’t care about Halloween? I mean, I get it. Kind of. That’s fine. It’s not for everyone. It’s very much for me, however, and your dislike of shenanigans gives me a frowny face, but hey, to each their own. What are some non-Halloweeny things to do this weekend? Well, out in Winterport, Winterport Open Stage presents “Unnecessary Farce,” a comedy set for 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Wagner Middle School. In Brewer, the Brewer High Robotics Team hosts a huge craft fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Brewer High gym. Monday is also the start of deer hunting season in Maine (for Maine residents only on Monday, that is), so if you’re only interested in dressing up in blaze orange and scaring some deer, well, Monday is your day, buddy!

BDN zombie walk file photo by Gabor Degre

BDN zombie walk file photo by Gabor Degre

5. Eastern Maine is absolutely chock full of fun Halloween events for all ages this weekend. For starters, there’s the annual BanGOREfest, a horror and comic fest set for UMaine’s Field House from 6 to midnight on Friday, 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, with a horror film fest, costume and tattoo contest, comic creators, writers, film directors and actors, and wrestling. In Bangor on Saturday, there’s downtown trick or treating from 2 to 4 p.m., and at 3 p.m. on the Waterfront, there’s the sixth annual Zombie Walk (dress up as a zombie, do your best zombie stagger through town). That night, the Bangor Historical Society hosts a Ghostly Bangor walking tour at 7 p.m. starting at the Hill House museum on Union Street. Outside of Bangor, the Kenduskeag Red Department offers up its genuinely terrifying haunted house from 7 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday at Cole Memorial Ball Field. Unity College hosts its annual haunted house at the Unity College Center for the Performing Arts from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday and 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. In Belfast, from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday there’s a Night Owl Prowl, in which shops stay open late and folks are encouraged to come in costume. And at Fort Knox State Park in Bucksport, there’s of course the grandaddy of great Halloween fright fests in Maine — Fright at the Fort, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Emily Burnham

About Emily Burnham

Emily Burnham is a Maine native, UMaine graduate, proud Bangorian and a writer for the Bangor Daily News, where she's worked since 2004. She reports on everything from local bands to local food to all the cool things going on in the Greater Bangor area. In her quest for stories, she's seen countless concerts and plays, been lobster fishing, interviewed celebrities, hung out with water buffalo and played in a ukulele orchestra. She's interested in everything that happens in Maine.