A frighteningly long-standing musical tradition in Reno returns this year.
On Saturday, Oct. 26, the Holland Project will host its annual spooky soiree—the Halloween Cover Show. About a dozen local bands will tackle the music, style and personalities of musical icons, bands who are no longer with us, and creatives who have made a musical impact. Every year, a list of music legends is announced, and at the show, attendees find out which local band is adopting which persona. In recent years, the event has been held at Ferrari Farms, but this year, the Halloween Cover Show is returning home to the Holland Project.
During a recent interview with venue manager Ilya Arbatman, who has also performed at the event many times, he explained the origins the show.
“Halloween cover shows, obviously, Holland didn’t invent that,” Arbatman said. “That’s a pretty common ritual around Halloween time to do a cover-band show—especially in the DIY music world, you usually get a list of 20 or 30 bands that have some kind of Halloween-y element to them, from the Misfits to the Cramps to Iggy Pop or something like that. The idea is that it’s sort of easy music to play. Because of the level of musical creativity in Reno at the time, I think Holland leveled it up a little bit, and people started taking it a couple of steps further.”
Holland’s Halloween show debuted in 2007, the same year Holland opened. In the 17 years since, the event has seen bands go from simply playing cover songs to embracing the costumes, personalities and stage presences of the bands being covered.
“They were picking bands that were a little more challenging, and also really working on the element of getting into character,” Arbatman said. “… I think something that Holland innovated, in addition to pushing people to do more challenging bands, is sometimes people will kind of put a group together just for the Halloween show. That, for me, has always been the most fun element, because you get people who don’t normally play together to play together, and that’s both fun and it creates a more interesting experience for various reasons.”
Recent shows were hosted at Ferrari Farms, to accommodate more performers and even more attendees at the growing event.
“It’s probably the biggest show, attendance-wise, of the year,” Arbatman said. “I think something like 500 people came last year. They’re short sets, so you have tons of bands playing, and it has this frantic energy to it. There’s something about it that is really fun, but also, bands usually do a really good job.”
Many Reno favorites, Arbatman included, perform at the event regularly. However, part of Holland’s mission is to feature younger, newer bands, even at the most popular event of the year.
“Holland is the only real all-ages place in town, which means that we’re the only spot where you’re going to get some new band of 16-year-olds to be up onstage in front of 300 people doing their best to play Metallica songs,” Arbatman said. “Other than at their high school or at a weird talent show or something, that group of kids is not really going to get an opportunity, and there is something to be said for being on a stage in front of a lot of people. It really is a special experience, and Holland is very conscious of that.”
The Halloween Cover Show may not raise any undead spirits, but the event does raise the stakes for participating musicians.
“The level of musicianship is definitely an important aspect of it,” Arbatman said. “I think people feel like they have to rise to the occasion. If you feel like people are really putting a lot of work into it, you don’t want to get up there and be the band that clearly just practiced twice.”
Another important aspect of the event is Holland’s dedication to primarily featuring old, dead and popular bands.
“We do try to push people to cover bands that are not their favorite band right now,” Arbatman said. “Someone always wants to do Surf Curse; someone always wants to do whatever kind of thing is in right now, but we try to encourage people not to do that. We want the Halloween show to feel like we’re either raising musicians from the dead, or creating this environment that’s a little bit of interdimensional time-traveling.”
Clark Demeritt has a long history with the Halloween Cover Show. The local musician was the music director at the Holland Project from 2009 to 2014; he helped run and performed at the Cover Show during that time, and he has watched it grow over the past 10 years.
“It’s a really good way to bring a lot of different kinds of bands together from different scenes and have a real fun thing for everybody of all ages to do around Halloween time,” Demeritt said.
One of the best moments for Demeritt was getting to pay tribute to his favorite band of all time.
“I participated as my favorite band, Devo, and that was pretty crazy,” he said. “It was crazy how cathartic it felt being able to play my favorite songs. I was a little dictator about it to all of my bandmates—and I made them buy the actual hats.”
Demeritt gave a special shout-out to the band CRUSH for subverting expectations year after year.
“They kind of started out sounding like Nirvana, and then they ended up being an electronic DIY boy band, which was really, really interesting and cool,” Demeritt said. “Year after year, they would do just the most interesting choices, like Radiohead. You’d think, ‘How are they going to do Radiohead?’—and they absolutely killed it. They did the Beastie Boys one year, and it was unbelievable, and then I think they followed it up with System of a Down.”
Demeritt said he has been continually impressed with the way the event has evolved into a highlight of Reno’s music calendar.
“It’s definitely become more of a spectacle year after year,” Demeritt said. “The decorations got better; it became more of an event, and then they moved it over to the farm, which was kind of a cool change of pace. It is nice to have it come back to Holland. … It’s always a big deal. One of my peers who I respect the most, he always says that it’s his favorite event of the year, which I was surprised to hear. I agreed with it, but for some reason, that was surprising to me, but then I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s just so much fun.’”
The Halloween Cover Show will take place at 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Holland Project, 140 Vesta St., in Reno. Tickets are $10. For more information, visit hollandreno.org.