11 Famous Halloween Rock Concerts

Like chocolate and peanut butter, Halloween and rock concerts are a perfect match. Both are natural environments for expressing your inner theatrical streak, wearing costumes, overindulging and cutting loose for a bit of rebellious mischief.

Here’s a list of 11 of the most famous Halloween rock concerts of all time, many of which feature music’s biggest stars getting into the holiday spirit with costumes, special effects and unique cover songs.

Little Feat: Oct. 31, 1975 Boston, Mass.

It took far too long, but Little Feat finally broke through to the mainstream with albums such as 1974’s Feats Don’t Fail Me Now and 1975’s The Last Record Album. To celebrate the band returned to Boston – one of the cities to first show them love – for a Halloween show broadcast live on local radio station WBCN, which featured guitarist Lowell George and company in particularly strong form.

Parliament / Funkadelic: Oct. 31, 1976 Houston, Texas

George Clinton’s P-Funk army was in peak form when they hit Houston for a Halloween show in 1976 – and of course, nobody in the band had to worry about being caught without holiday-appropriate stage wear. Luckily the show was professionally filmed, and the resulting The Mothership Connection Live 1976 is a must-have document of one of the most powerful and dynamic rock bands of the decade.

Frank Zappa: Oct. 31, 1977 New York City

Frank Zappa was never afraid to let his freak flag fly, so it makes sense that his Halloween shows were always something special. The 1977 Palladium shows captured in the concert film Baby Snakes are an excellent example, with Zappa joined by a typically stellar band of musicians including Adrian Belew, Terry Bozzio and Tommy Mars.

Van Halen: Oct. 31, 1980 Macon, Georgia

Van Halen got into the holiday spirit at the Halloween show of their World Invasion tour, dressing up before taking the stage at Georgia’s Macon Coliseum. No audio or video from the show is currently in circulation, but you can see their costumes below and in this Van Halen News Desk photo gallery

Grateful Dead: Oct. 31, 1980 New York City

Like Zappa, the Grateful Dead have more than their share of famous Halloween shows to choose from. Many fans seem to have a particularly warm spot in their heart for the 1980 show at Radio City Music Hall. The show was telecast live to some lucky movie theaters in America, and featured one acoustic and two electric sets. Portions of the concert can be found on the Dead Ahead home video and on the 1981 album Dead Set.

Rolling Stones: Oct. 31, 1981 Dallas, Texas

The Rolling Stones could have benefited from wearing costumes at their Oct. 31, 1981 show at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas – perhaps some raincoats or scuba diving gear, specifically. The band’s Halloween show got hit with a torrential downpour, resulting in the famous photograph seen below. Despite the weather Mick Jagger and company delivered a strong 23-song set.

Alice Cooper: Oct. 31, 1986 Detroit, Michigan

According to SetList.fm, Alice Cooper has played over 3,000 concerts – and no matter what the calendar said, it was Halloween on stage at every one of them. So it’s hard to pick just one concert for this list. But the master of shock rock’s 1986 Detroit homecoming show at Joe Louis Arena, professionally filmed and later released as The Nightmare Returns, is a pretty good place to start. Look for a pre-“Seventeen” Kip Winger on bass during the show.

Nirvana: Oct. 31, 1993 Akron, Ohio

Nirvana went costume crazy at their 1993 Halloween show in Akron, Ohio. Kurt Cobain dressed up in a gigantic Barney the Dinosaur costume, Dave Grohl as a mummy, Krist Novoselic as “a reverse Ted Danson,” and guitarist Pat Smear donned a wig and top hat in honor of Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, even starting the show with a brief snippet of “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” Sadly, there were no Devo or Pretenders covers performed in honor of the local music heroes.

Phish: Oct. 31, 1994: Glens Falls, NY

Phish’s Halloween tradition of covering classic albums by other artists in full began in Upstate New York in 1994 with a performance of all 28 songs on the Beatles’ White Album. Since then they have also covered the Who’s Quadrophenia, Talking Heads’ Remain in Light and the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street. Let us know if they ever decide to tackle Reign in Blood.

Kiss: Oct. 31, 1998 Los Angeles, Calif.

Much like P-Funk and Alice Cooper, Kiss never needed an excuse to hit the stage in outlandish costumes. They decided to make Halloween 1998 extra-special by launching their Psycho Circus world tour at L.A.’s Dodger Stadium, broadcasting the show on live TV. The tour featured huge screens with 3-D graphics that concert-goers could see with special glasses. Opening act the Smashing Pumpkins got in on the fun by dressing as the Beatles for their set.

Smashing Pumpkins: Oct. 31, 2008 Columbus, Ohio

Smashing Pumpkins turned the first set of their 2008 Halloween show into an unexpected covers party – delivering genre-hopping chestnuts such as “Louie Louie,” “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler.” After a second set of their own music, they closed out the evening with Pink Floyd’s “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.”