Above the Fold

A digital 'zine by Original Fuzz about creativity and making stuff.

★  Apr 16, 2024  ★

The Perfect Halloween Playlist

The Lost Boys movie poster

It’s that time of year when some grown men and women start thinking about their Halloween costumes.

At Original Fuzz we have a six year tradition of playing a night of cover songs for Halloween with our band Baby Sweat. Baby Sweat has had many members over the years and has taken many forms. Last year we played a synth-heavy set full of Depeche Mode.

It’s a lot of fun to play the show, but it’s even more fun to choose the songs we’re going to play, and then learn them. This has resulted in some deep philosophical debates about the nature of “a good Halloween song.”

Our general rule-of-thumb is that if Keifer Sutherland and his gang of vampires from the movie The Lost Boys were a Halloween cover band, would they think the song is cool to play at their show? If so, then it's a good Halloween song. That's The Lost Boys test. Also, any clothing that appears on screen in The Lost Boys is appropriate attire for a member of a Halloween party band.

But even with our Lost Boys litmus test, there’s still a lot of room for debate. So a few years back we starting building a Spotify playlist to help us with this process. It’s evolved into a pretty formidable October playlist, and we wanted to share it. Now tell us, what are we missing? Help us perfect “The Perfect Halloween Playlist.” Send us an email with your suggestions and we’ll add them if we think they pass The Lost Boys test.

Here's a photo gallery of Baby Sweat through the years...

Baby sweat plays a rolling stones cover halloween 2012

Lee McAlilly plays synth at a 2013 Halloween show

Zach Lever sings Black Sabbath at a 2013 Halloween show

David MacNutt on Synth

Brett Bennett plays bass with Baby Sweat

Zach Lever and David MacNutt dressed as vampires

Brett Bennett and Lee McAlilly in full costume

Zach Lever plays guitar with baby sweat

David MacNutt plays guitar with Baby Sweat

David MacNutt and Lee McAlilly apply makeup before a halloween show

Brett Bennett plays drums at the 2013 halloween show

David MacNutt plays guitar and synth at the same time

Lee McAlilly's 2013 costume

The scene before the 2013 Halloween party