By Seamus Gallivan:

Tonight is a special night in The Good Neighborhood and for anyone else who's a sucker for a homecoming. The Sportsmens Tavern will host a birthday show for Lake Shore High School grad and current Nashville resident Chris Nathan, a budding soul sensation bound to break out and bring Buffalo with him.

The singer/songwriter and die-hard Sabres fan will perform an intimate set accompanied only by ace Buffalo drummer Jeff Schaller - no word on whether or not Jeffro will be playing his Blue & Gold Sabres drum kit, but the two are definitely developing

By Greg Genco:

These two bands share not only an affinity with a particular color but also with spacey esoteric sounds commonly referred to as psychedelic rock. Black Mountain hailing from Vancouver come down more on the heavy side of things as they channel Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.

The Black Angels, representing Austin, Texas employ more drones and effects conjuring The Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3, and The 13th Floor Elevators. In fact, the band recorded and toured with legendary 13th Floor Elevators' leader Roky Erickson in 2008.

Tonight's show,

If you're going to attend a super creepy Halloween party, then you might as well go to one in a location that's super haunted. It's a widely know fact that the Town Ballroom is notorious for sending cold chills down many visitor's spine. Don't believe the visitors? Then ask the ghost hunters who continue to explore every last detail of the historic building looking for clues as to what makes the place go 'bump' in the night. Each year the in-house ghosts are treated with hoards of characters around Halloween, making for one of the best costume parties of the year. That party is tonight!

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Ooh, ooh, ooh... it's time for the annual Hallowasted Halloween live music and monster bash. This party, has turned out o be one of the 'funnest' underground events of the year because it takes all of the elements of spooky Halloween and incorporates all of the Kitchen Distribution mayhem that many of us have come to love so much. If you're not familiar with Kitchen Distribution, then you may want to attend just to see what all of the hoopla is all about:

Band line-up: NSFW, MJB Corp, NY Sexybeast, Snax and The Rowdy Snakes...

On

By Fun Al:

Years ago, in days gone by, when our younger selves could tear it up like no one's business, there was a party of lore. Tom Slyvan and Jason Mang held a Halloween house party that rivaled none. Huge in scope, laden with debauchery of the highest level, and more often than not, the center of local law enforcement's attention.

Sadly, we have begun to age to the point where it is no longer fun nor amusing to have to repair the dry wall for the 14th time after a guest 'mistakenly' put his or her head through it. Thus, the party was moved to a larger, more public

Shea's Performing Arts Center is welcoming all literacy advocates to join them for a "novel" event on Thursday, November 4.

The "Cocktails in Character" fundraiser, presented by M&T Bank, will bring together Buffalo's book lovers to help support Literacy Volunteers in Buffalo & Erie County.  The event will start at 5:30 p.m. and run until 8 p.m.

Several literary figures will be making an appearance at the theater.  Amongst them will be Scarlett O'Hara, the Cat in the Hat, Zorro, Dracula, Clifford the Dog, Long John Silver, Cleopatra, Alice and the Queen

The Good Neighborhood's inaugural Monster Mashup is set to smoke Nietzsche's tonight at 8:00pm with two threesomes, one performing and the other benefiting - performing are Critt's Juke Joint, Lazlo Hollyfeld & Sonny Baker, and DJs Cutler & LoPro, all in musical costumes; and benefiting are Buffalo First!, Buffalo CarShare, and Heart of the City Neighborhoods, who have united to launch the People's Party.

It's a busy bill built to kill, and tear up the stage they surely will. There are a lotta heads committed to making this a blast for all - it came together something like this...
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In the midst of the good times over the weekend, people had to know it was going to come to an end. Thankfully, Greg Lamberson made it a point to mention that there will be another Buffalo Screams next year for sure. Buffalo now has a yearly counterculture outlet for its horror lust to be quelled.

Opening the day was Jay Mager's bloody biker drama, Born to Die. It was previously covered in Buffalo Rising during the Buffalo International Film Festival here. Only now it was presented to a bigger and more

Canadian independent filmmaker Brett Kelly was recently in town for the Buffalo Screams Horror Festival to showcase his "More Than Horror" entry, Avenging Force: The Scarab. He was also the recipient of the Independent Spirit Award at the festival for the 16 independent films he's worked on since starting in 2001. His other films include Iron Soldier and The Feral Man. With the help of two diehard Brett fans - Madeline and Jared Ciricillo, I was able to set-up a brief interview with Mr. Kelly, along with his lovely wife Anne-Marie, at My Tomato Pie (plug!) on the day before

The third day of the Buffalo Screams Horror Festival offered a wide selection for diverse palates. Unlike Friday's zombie theme, there was no set theme for the day. Even with the films outlined in the program, it was unpredictable to say the least.

The opening short, A Study In Red, hearkened back to two classic cult films: Roger Corman's Bucket of Blood and Herschell Gordon Lewis' Color Me Blood Red. At 7 minutes, the feature went from blissful to disturbing. It centered on an eager painter (Krista Webb) who worked on abstract art with blood. There isn't much else

By Greg Genco:

Tonight Sat. Oct. 23rd Soundlab is putting on a truly unique and diverse bill of contemporary music under the banner Alternate Realities Series: Electronic Pop and Crackle. Headlining the event are experimental music pioneers Harmony Rockets including original Mercury Rev members, Jonathan Donahue, Grasshopper, Suzanne Thorpe and Buffalo's own Jimy Chambers.

The project born, according to Donahue, from the desire to "kill a Friday night in the mountains" began when they recorded the 41

If you're a film fan and you've never attended an event at the Montante Cultural Center, and there are many, this is one that may interest you. From Thursday November 4th to Sunday November 7th, the center will be home to a Polish Film Festival featuring subtitled screenings of high-ranking films produced by some of the best Polish directors in the industry. The festival also gives viewers the chance to hear from a couple of the directors, including Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo (Image: 2009 Afterlife starring Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci).

Between the cinematic line-up and the

It was a proverbial "day of the dead" on Friday for the second day of the Buffalo Screams Horror Festival. It was nothing but zombies, zombies, and more zombies. If the movie had slow-moving ghouls that were dead and all messed up, it was shown to a ravenous public. Some of the movies included an interesting twist on the mother of all flesh-eating zombie films to Buffalo-made living dead shenanigans.

Opening the day was the American short directed by Brandon Hunt, The Duty of the Living. The film focuses on a returning veteran of a zombie

Finally, there is now a festival that isn't rooted in a joke from a bad Farrelly Bros. animated movie. The First Annual Buffalo Screams Horror Festival kicks off tonight at the Screening Room* and runs through Sunday, October 24th. Founded by Buffalo's own Emil J. Novak and Greg Lamberson, the festival hopes to showcase various genre fare made outside of Buffalo as well as made in Buffalo. In addition, there will be many guests that will be honored at the convention.

The guest of honor would be none other than legendary scream queen, Debbie Rochon.

From The Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy:

This holiday season the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy is converting the Parkside Lodge in Delaware Park into a wondrous winter wonderland.  The Lunch Box Café will be serving up warm holiday treats in front of a roaring fire!  In addition to the cosmetic make over, the Agissiz Circle entrance to Jewett Parkway will be decked out with a stunning theatrical and energy efficient holiday light display.  We'll also have carriage rides through the park.  The Conservancy is currently seeking local chorale and instrumental

On Friday, October 22 at 8 p.m., Club W on Delaware Avenue will be hosting "The Bitches Brew," an evening of jazz like no other.

The show will feature DJ LoPro and Waxing Lyrical, who together will be creating a fusion of jazz and new age music that cannot be experienced anywhere else.  "Our DJs are going to open up with a new wave mix of jazz," said Andrew Whiteford, the event's organizer. "It's going to be very hip, new, different and contemporary."  Following DJ LoPro will be a surprise guest, and then Waxing Lyrical will take the stage with their swanky, old-school jazz

By Mackenzie Lambert:

Comic conventions have sprung up everywhere like a whack-a-mole game. There's the famous San Diego Comic-Con. There's the New York Comic-Con, as well as other Cons in Toronto, Phoenix, Orlando, Seattle, and Montreal. It only makes sense for Buffalo to have its own Comic-Con. Such was the case this past Sunday for the Official Buffalo Comic-Con, thanks in part to Buffalo's own Emil J. Novak. And as for attending my first comic convention in nearly two decades, I figured why not go and support local artists and proprietors?

As a kid, I was a comic

The stairs leading up to the Failures' Union's practice space were familiar--in a good way. I've been in a number of North Buffalo and University District attics for a myriad of reasons, most of which have been for practices, shows, or recording sessions. They really make excellent practice spaces, generally because they exist in abundance, and thanks to the property value in Buffalo area, are a relatively cheap option when compared to many other cities and options. The low cost of living in Buffalo has been touted for years by artists and city boosters

Western New Yorkers love to eat. We especially love to eat at restaurants, as evidenced by our overwhelming number of independently-owned dining options. In arguably shinier parts of the country, chains drown out the competition, leaving no room for the little guy. But not here. We love the old, time-worn establishments serving up food like our grandmothers made just as much as we care for the new and polished locales with innovative offerings. We also hold dear many of the restaurants that land somewhere between.

The only thing that we might appreciate more than food and restaurants

Buffalo's newest airbrushing store, Tempest Air, will officially be opening its doors for business on Monday, October 18.

Located at 459 Amherst Street, the store will offer custom airbrush artwork services to any customer looking to add a little creativity to their clothing, shoes, license plates, musical instruments--you name it.  "Literally, if you can squeeze it through our doors we can paint it up," said owner Jenn Mayberry.

Mayberry, who has always had a passion for art, began working with airbrushing when she was a junior in high school.  She was hired at