The Alexsander, Benny Benassi, Deep Fake, and more share their favorite Halloween stories
While families and kids are busy trick-or-treating, electronic music aficionados everywhere are typically heading to a Halloween rave, letting their freak flags fly a little more freely on All Hallow’s Eve. Naturally, this leads to some unforgettable and unique memories. In lieu of the typical Halloween festivities this year, Dancing Astronaut asked the likes of The Alexsander, Benny Benassi, Deep Fake and more to share their favorite Halloween stories in celebration of the venerated holiday.
The Alexsander
“A few years back, I think it was 2017, I played a private villa party during Halloween in the south of Spain, with a beautiful view over the ocean and Africa just straight over. My outfit for the night was very basic, all black: jeans, a t-shirt, sneakers, and some black paint around my eyes. I looked like a koala.
I was walking towards the entrance of the house, through a small road and some garden elements, with my squad of friends. While we walked, we didn’t notice the decor that much, because we all were excited to see the party. When we were walking through some parts of the garden, a figure suddenly popped up in front of me and started to make a loud noise. Without even thinking, my right arm goes straight towards the figure’s face, giving the poor guy a sucker punch.
Down he goes on the ground looking like a beaten ghost, screaming even more on the ground. My squad of friends started to scream and run back towards the car as I began to realize that there was a person in a ghost costume, on the ground screaming ‘idiota’ aloud in Spanish, among many other things. I helped him up and told him I’m so sorry, then continued walking into the house party after screaming ‘come back’ to my friends. During the night, I think I ended up saying sorry to the guy at least 10 times.”
Glamour Hammer
“I love dressing up, so Halloween is definitely the holiday for me. I’m especially fond of coming up with ingenious and silly costumes that are sure to make other partygoers either laugh or cringe. The dumber the better! Dressing up as the currently out of order coffee machine from work was one of my more elaborate creations—the big cardboard box, however, was not ideal when visiting the gents. I’ll be celebrating the holiday by releasing my new single ‘I’m a Ghost’ and a horror flick-inspired music video. I’ve got no plans for lavish parties this year, but shooting the video gave me enough Halloween spirit; plus I got to scare a few joggers while doing it.”
Featured image: Sofia Eriksson
Benny Benassi
“I love playing at Halloween parties in New York! Every time I played there, it’s been the craziest experience ever! The whole city has a peculiar atmosphere; it never failed to give me spooky feelings. If you like Halloween, you must try a party in New York this time of the year.”
Deep Fake
Fake 1: “The craziest Halloween party I DJ’d was in 2011. It was a chilly night with some spooky vibes at an abandoned warehouse in Detroit. It was a super minimalistic event; there was a dirt floor, the DJ gear, and two speakers which held up the gear. Everyone dressed up as their favorite superhero that night, so at around 2:00 a.m. when security showed up, all the superheroes dispersed into the night.”
Fake 2: “The craziest Halloween party I ever DJ’d was at a frat house a couple years ago where the pledges had cleared out this massive room and filled it with sand so they could do a beach themed Halloween party. I went up to DJ and turned my subwoofer up a little too high. It blew the power out in the entire building. This left about 500 people standing in the dark with only one exit. Talk about an actual nightmare.”
Flash 89
“A story that comes to mind is when I’d finished playing a gig Halloween weekend back in Sydney, Australia a few years ago. When the show ended, a group of us wanted to continue the evening so we headed to our hotel. We continued the banter back at our hotel into the early hours, but eventually I couldn’t continue and ventured off to my room while littering a trail of clothes.
In the morning, we all slept in and realized that we were going to miss our flight, so we frantically grabbed our clothes, got sorted, and rushed to the airport. Halfway to the airport, as I checked my phone I realized that my pockets felt somewhat unfamiliar and that I didn’t recognize the fabric. I quickly came to the conclusion that I was in fact wearing someone else’s pants. In the madness to get to the airport I’d grabbed someone else’s pants…What’s worse: I also grabbed my correct pants, which were safely in my luggage. So to the poor bastard who had no pants that morning, sorry mate! This year will be much more lowkey; I’ll catch up with friends and keep my pants on.
Doorly
“My favorite Halloween in recent memory was playing for the Music Is For Lovers Halloween party at a huge mansion in San Diego a few years ago. My costume was a gorilla carrying me in a little cage and I decided to commit to playing my whole set from within the cage which was an absolute nightmare but lots of fun!”
Featured image: Blake Sesja
Joshwa (UK)
“One Halloween, I played an afterparty for students and a few people were saying the music was hitting too hard, so they decided to put colanders on their heads and pretended they were helmets to protect from the beats!”
Zendlo
“Easily the best Halloween memory I have was in 2017. I got a Facebook message from Londonbridge (Space Yacht) saying that they needed an opener that night for their Halloween party. That was the first party I had played since moving to Los Angeles in 2015, so I was so nervous. I left work early to go download a ton of music and hope for the best. I couldn’t even remember how to beat match so I just used the sync button and it actually turned out pretty good.”
Famba, Jake Tarry and Alex Hosking
Jake Tarry: “Two years ago, I was playing a Halloween gig in Amsterdam in a gremlin mask and suit. After the gig, I went straight to the airport for a show in London. I got stopped at customs because of the strange objects in my luggage, such as the mask and fake blood. After having a really long conversation with the nice but stern customs agent, I was allowed through just in time to make my flight into London.”
Alex Hosking: “My friend invited me to a singles Halloween party. I didn’t know it was a dating event, I just thought it was a party, so I dressed up in a full mermaid costume only to find that I would be stuck in speed dating type games. What made it weirder was that everyone was in costume, so I got stuck with a guy who was dressed as an Avatar and painted blue from head to toe. He was the most boring person I had ever met…but was also the bluest person I had ever met. He just kept talking about TV show reruns and kept leaving blue paint everywhere! He was certainly someone I didn’t want to get to know better.”
Famba: “A few years back, I played a Halloween show in my hometown. A couple of guys in costumes started fighting in the middle of the dance floor. Meanwhile, I was playing a back-to-back set with my friend, and for whatever reason we had a shake weight on stage. Someone took a video of us shaking the shake weight in the DJ booth while a massive fight ensued. Good times…”
Featured image: Benny Benassi
Categories: Features