Halloween in Enfield

What with Halloween falling on a Friday this year there are too many things going on - and most of them will be full of drunken idiots out on 'Amateur Night'. Every year Halloween seems to get further and further away from it's origins - for many people it just seems to be 'Fancy dress night' now and they wear anything - with little or no regard to the actual theme of the night. With idiot avoidance in mind I decided against the more usual areas of Camden or the West End. Some good friends of mine were playing in Enfield just a bus ride away - a free entry pub gig with reasonably priced beer. And appropriately for tonight, the band are called The Haunting.

I don't normally travel to see cover bands, but The Haunting make the trip worthwhile. They are always worth seeing anyway as they are a really good band, but they make a special effort to dress up on Halloween.

The band know that they are playing to a 'rock' crowd at this venue so their set is tailored accordingly, but this is the sort of music the band themselves like the most anyway.

 BOING goes the bass player!

The harder rocking feel to the band's setlist didn't stop people dancing - a wolf being one of the most enthusiastic dancers - he must have been bloody hot!

'Bad Moon Rising' seems particularly apt tonight, as does a dose of Black Sabbath.

As well as the band dressing for the occasion, there is an appropriate theme for some of the songs too - 'Werewolves of London' being a pretty obvious one - there are two wolves in the crowd after all!

I think I made the right choice of venue for All Hallows Eve this year, although there seemed to be slightly less people in the pub than for this band's Halloween gig last year - maybe that's why the beer didn't run out this time? Unfortunately the real ale pumps remained out of use and I couldn't spot any Newcastle Brown or similar in the cooler cabinets, but at least the Flowers bitter on draught was reasonably priced. Not that I drunk that much as it often took ages to get served at the bar, although to be fair the staff were doing their best. The band were excellent, the pub was idiot free, and I was home a lot quicker than if I had gone to the West End or Camden - and I didn't feel I was getting ripped off.