Sure, Bob Dylan is a big fan of Christmas nowadays and April Fool’s Day is clearly Trent Reznor’s favorite holiday, but Halloween has a unique way of bringing the festive spirit out of even the most straight-laced of musicians. Conor Oberst, in particular, likes to get dressed up for Halloween and play a couple covers (or as Phish would call them, “musical costumes”). Let’s take a look at a few of the gaunt indie rock heartthrob’s notable celebrations of All Hallows Eve, starting with this year:
Oberst, M. Ward, Jim James, and Mike Mogis, aka the Monsters of Folk, broke out black and white makeup, studded leather, and black wigs this year to perform a tribute to Kiss. As P4K’s Tom Breihan aptly notes, “classic-era Kiss remains one of the all-time great group Halloween costumes.” Watch these Halloween Monsters play a killer version of “Detroit Rock City” here or below:
Last year, Oberst was busy jamming as a solo artist with his Mystic Valley Band and (nobody tell Huey Lewis) the boys strapped some folky proton packs onto white jumpsuits to perform Ray Parker, Jr.’s number one hit “Ghostbusters” from the 1984 beloved flick. Watch Conor emote the line “Who you gonna call?” here or below:
This last one is certainly not as funny as the previous two, but it’s probably the only musically significant cover of the bunch. In 2003, Halloween fell only 10 days after the tragic death of Elliott Smith (my favorite musician). Dressed as a creepy skeleton that could’ve just walked out of a Tim Burton film, Oberst played a perfectly imperfect version of the closing track to Smith’s 1995 self-titled album, The Biggest Lie.” Watch it here or below: