As most of Athens dressed up in costume this Halloween, local musicians decided to morph into their favorite bands. At the Caledonia Lounge on Saturday, a cover band extravaganza featured bands celebrating the music of Weezer, Andrew W.K. and Metallica.

Hear You Me (Weezer cover band)
The most confusing moment of the night came when guitarist Jace Bartet stepped on stage wearing only pink underwear and multi-colored streamers, which were draped and taped across his body.

The crowd’s looks of confusion eventually drew his explanation: “I’m a rainbow,” Bartet said. This caused the crowd to burst into laughter, which was likely the response he had been waiting for.

Unlike the poorly-constructed-yet-funny rainbow costume, the band’s covers were taken seriously, as it was obvious that the band had practiced a lot before Saturday. The vocals sounded remarkably like Rivers Cuomo (the singer was dressed as a literal river). The most enjoyable aspect of the performance was that they didn’t play any of Weezer’s music after the “Pinkerton” album, which is considered Weezer’s last moment of true greatness. In performing the older, more raw music of Weezer, Hear You Me surpassed my expectations of a cover band by playing music as well as they entertained.

Pastor of Muppets (Metallica tribute band)
Cut-off tees, wigs, METAL! Pastor of Muppets immediately won over first-timers in the crowd, like myself, when they ran on stage dressed as and acting like the members of Metallica.

Their set began with a metal rendition of the “Halloween” theme song, complete with lavish guitar harmonies and crunchy bass. Pastor of Muppets continued to rock out to Metallica’s earlier music and deeper cuts, putting smiles on the faces of many diehard Metallica fans.

Midway through the set, the mood changed as POM switched gears and began to play popular Metallica songs, such as “One,” which sounded so true to the original that people passing by the back door of Caledonia during the song likely mistook it for the recorded version.

The remaining half of the show was chock-full of guitar solos, headbanging and screams, all performed precisely. Out of the three acts, Pastor of Muppets definitely sounds the most like the original, likely because unlike the other bands, the members are cover-band veterans and well practiced after many previous shows.

Coming out of the show, my ears were ringing to the point that I could only faintly hear the doorman wish me a goodnight, to which I yelled “THANKS MAN, YOU TOO.” He cowered back. It was then that I knew that Pastor of Muppets had brought the heat on Halloween in Athens and caused half the audience to lose their minds, and me to lose my hearing.

Girls Own Love (Andrew W.K. cover band)
“Party Hard” was surely the phrase of the night after Girls Own Love brought down the house with their fun and party-worthy renditions of the music of the quasi-respected Andrew W.K. Girls Own Love sported white clothing from head to toe and had blood running down the fronts of their shirts from their noses. Though Girls Own Love is purely female, the music was far from effeminate or lighthearted, and if anything, it was more intense than the original party anthems.

The onset of Girls Own Love’s set was accompanied by a mosh pit in the front of the crowd. More than anything that night, the crowd’s enthusiasm for Girls Own Love astonished me the most; either a hardcore, underground Andrew W.K. fan base still exists, or his music just tends to instantaneously cause people to mosh.

Likely, it is a little bit of both, and in Girls Own Love’s case, their high energy versions of the already intense songs
definitely perpetuated the crowd’s dire need to party hard.