By Michael Sauer, Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — The Nil8’s Hobgoblin Spookadelic was held at a place you would not want to miss.
Held on Halloween night at Don- nie’s Homespun, located in Down- town Springfield, this event was as wild as it was fun. Multiple events were held here, and I saw all except the last.
It started around 7:30 p.m. with no children present, even though they were welcome.
When I first arrived, the atmo- sphere was pretty tame, with only a few folks scattered here and there, but this didn’t last long. Soon, dozens of people dressed as “cereal” killers to zombies, to creepy clowns flooded the building. It was a hilari- ous site to see.
After a few minutes of standing around, the first act, a band named King Worm, took the stage and immediately filled the room with angst-ridden music. While their sound equipment was low end, the lead vocalist’s energy during the performance was noteworthy. He constantly jumped and rolled around on the floor.
King Worm was onstage for about 30 minutes before the next act, a local comedian who was dressed in a Ghostbusters uniform.
To be blunt, his humor was hit-and- miss, but at the very least, he was agood sport about the criticisms he received.
After he was done, Evan Mitchell, the host of the event, played on his ukulele/drum/megaphone contrap- tion for about 20 minutes. He was pretty great overall, but I still question how he put that device together.
Next up, a locally known band named Bad Banshee started their lineup of songs. While the female vocalist’s voice was hard to hear over the band’s loud instruments, the band did put on a good show, since they had better sound quality. I wish that she would have raised her voice more often, however.
After they were done performing, The Misfarts, a cover band of the famous Misfits, came on stage. As a personal fan of the Misfits, I found this to be my favorite event.
I was completely caught by sur- prise, as they sounded exactly like The Misifits, from their vocalist
sounding like Glen Danzing to the signature guitar riffs that they man- aged to pull off with great skill.
At the end of the night came the main event, which was Nil8, of course. It came along soon after the Misfarts left, and man, did it do an excellent job.
Nil8 was overflowing with enthu- siasm for the crowd, and the lead singer managed do everything in two separate costumes throughout the night.
The last band performed for an amazing hour and a half straight be- fore the last event took place, which was a costume contest.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay for that, as I was pretty exhausted at that point. Being completely honest, this entire experience was exciting — one I would recommend. It should (hopefully) come around next year.
Michael Sauer can be reached at [email protected] or 217-786-2311.
Note: This article was originally published in the Nov. 19, 2014, issue of The Lamp.