I hit about half of the dozen gigs happening in Halloween all over Lethbridge, Oct. 31, planning my evening around punk 
legends D.O.A. at Scores. But as they weren’t on until 11:30 p.m., I caught as many of the other shows as I could and unfortunately missed Jenny and the Scallywags’ opening set.
So I started things at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, which was packed, as were most places with an array of monsters, pirates, superheroes and other creatures of darkness.
Carisa Jayne opened the night with some sexy burlesque dancing for a song, for which she brought an audience member on stage with her and danced around her. Pat Maloney was up next with some spooky, haunting acoustic folk music as more people trickled into the already packed house for headliner's Cosmic Charley.
After that I wandered over to Average Joes for the Chevelles monthly gig there.
They were still getting ready before they all come on stage, dressed as nuns and played all of the crowd’s favourite classic rock hits beginning with Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town” and nailed the harmonizing guitar solos.
I’m not a big Metallica fan, but wasn’t going to miss Damage Inc.— the Lethbridge based Metallica tribute who always but on a great show.
They had a full stage show and dark blue and red lights silhouetting the band and giving them a menacing air.
The band, sporting zombie make up, played steel solid set of vintage Metallica for an audience which wasn’t as big as I expected them to be. After that it was time for something a little more laid back.
I’ve only seen local country band, fe
aturing many familiar faces from Long and McQuade, the Old Man River band once, so had to check them out at the Onion as they played a laid back, informal and low key set of country music.
Evan Herbst and Kevin Gnandt traded lead vocals as Austrian Graf added background vocals traded vocals and sounded pretty good.
Evan Herbst played guitar dressed up as Willie Nelson. Austrian Graf and bassist Ray Banman were done up as zombies as was drummer Mike Gnandt.
And then came the main event as I had to forgo the other gigs other than the end of another set of country from the Mark hall band at s the Smokehouse.
It was just another night of punk rock for D.O.A at Scores. They didn’t bother to dress up, instead sticking to what they do best — playing ferocious, loud, rocking vintage punk and hardcore music.
Frontman Joe Keithley was backed by his rock solid new line up of drummer Paddy Duddy and bassist Mike Hodsall who never missed a note as Hodsall was leaping and kicking around the stage as much as Keithley as he 
started the set with vintage D.O.A. cuts “ I Hate You” followed by “D.O.A,” “ Liar for Hire,” one of my favourites ‘2+2” and just took off from there.
There was plenty of moshable rhythms and hot guitar playing as Keithley proved as promised in his interview last week that he hasn’t forgotten how to play guitar and kick ass on stage.
“Marijuana” was a highlight punctuated by a rant about legalizing it as was a ferociously high octane version of “ Police Brutality.”
Two of the most perfect punk songs ever written by anyone “ Fuck You” and “ Disco Sucks” were highlights mid set. They played the more obscure “America The Beautiful” and covered most of what I wanted to hear including a cover of “War— What is it Good For” though surprisingly didn‘t touch on much of their last studio album “We Come in Peace.” And before anyone realized it, they were done just over an hour later, though they returned for an encore of “Race Riot” and a Ramones tribute.
