Halloween with Vans

On Friday night Deer Brains traveled over to deepest darkest Vauxhall to celebrate Halloween- the most slutty, cavity inducing holiday of the year- with Vans and the Crossfire skate company at their annual Halloween Massacre. While the weather was lousy and the drinks were expensive it didn't stop the aptly named Hidden from being a great place to hold such an event. The, possibly unintentional, dark and divey feeling helped buoy up a night of punk rock, classic rock and techno rock. The crowd responded with enthusiasm in spades and, not that we're suggesting this was the reason but, as we were told and shown, scary costumes are a great place to hide dubious substances.

Chemicals aside, the live music was loud and raucous with Cerebral Ballzy managing to make a room full of people, probably old enough to know better, mosh until their lips were bloody and their bodies bruised. And after all the excitement of a hardcore punk concert, weirdly juxtaposed with a room full of cartoon characters, the only sensible thing to do was to retire to the classic rock room and sing along to songs you'd forgotten that you knew the words to. The night was rounded off by a spell spent throwing shapes in the techno room, but as four o' clock started to loom into view even the zombified and the undead were a bit tired and things had long since wound down.

Except maybe for this man and his mask.

Like monsters at the end of horror films, the Massacre will no doubt be back again and if you're looking for something to do that's slightly different next year, then you can join in with the mixture of plumbers and aliens seen below.

And this green fella will hopefully be making a return.

The Crossfire Halloween Massacre 2011

It's nearly that very important time of the year where you have to decide exactly where you will be partying this Halloween. To possibly make the decision a bit easier Crossfire Magazine announced earlier today that Cerebral Ballzy, the Brooklyn hardcore band, will be playing at their annual Halloween mash-up. As it is the tenth year of the magazine they will no doubt be making sure it's something special. Cerebral Ballzy are headlining the Vans sponsored rock stage with High Rankin & Tigerlight headlining the Front sponsored Electro stage. There will also be a third room set up by Crossfire featuring the best skate-related art around; you can see a video of some of the artwork that will be showcased here, with a full list of the acts and events here.

The event is being held on Friday the 28th of October at Hidden club, 100 Tinmouth Street,  Vauxhall,  London, SE11 5EQ from 9pm-5am. Earlybird tickets have already sold out. Tickets are available in advance for only £10 and booking fee at http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_london&query=detail&event=468208 Limited tickets will be available on the door, on the night for £15.

Vice UK: Tiger 8 Not Known Presents... London Fields Halloween Party

Pics by Stephanie Sian Smith, Michael Halls and Max

Okay. At the start of this article, may I point out that in no way, shape or form am I a racist. I would never look down on anyone else because of the colour of their skin, there are far better reasons to do that. But the decision to attend a party in the centre of Hackney dressed as minstrels was always going to turn a few heads. Myself and Max ordered a taxi to the party, where our taxi driver (a very large black guy) laughed with us, listening to Alborosie on the drive there and letting us have a discount because he couldn't break a tenner. Good start.


We looked pretty good.
The party in itself was great. Once ticked off the guest list, the bouncer handed us several tokens each which could be exchanged for bottles of Tiger (since they were sponsoring the event). I usually don't bat an eyelid at bouncers, for two reasons: either they aren't the most beautiful people in the world (more like skinhead neanderthals jacked up on protein shakes), or because any eye contact could lead to getting refused entry and a kick in the teeth with any attempt at answering back. But this guy had actually made an effort as well, with half his face painted in the style of Baron Samedi from Live and Let Die. Applause to him for effort.



good likeness! glad the bouncer was a little more cheerful...

People were generally very talkative and, for want of a phrased that doesn't imply 15-year old ravers on methodrone, hyped on life in general. People seemed to get the joke that we weren't really making a racist comment, and amidst over provocative outfits, it passed generally un-noticed. I had a good chat with a photographer for Tiger about 80s Ultra Burner bikes for a fair while; it wasn't hard to make general conversation with such an easy-going bunch. (Photo man from Tiger, if you are reading this, send over some of your pictures!)



Alexa Chung lookalike, get in me...

The night wound down, and we felt it best to wash our faces before walking back to Max's gaff in Whitechapel. Sneaking out two more free Tiger beers for the road from a pub has never felt better. Massive props to Tiger Beer for sponsoring such an awesome night with awesome amounts of beer, and to Mel from ViceUK for the guest list hook-up.

Leg Avenue - 30% off with Deer Brains

The Leg Avenue brand has humble roots as a family-owned hosiery business with big dreams. The Tsai family began designing unique stockings and selling them at swap meets and kiosks located at L.A.’s downtown fashion district in 1984. From hosiery to lingerie, the business evolved quickly with innovative ideas and lots of hard work. In 1999, the family formed Leg Avenue, Inc. to bring its new product concepts to life.

It wasn’t long before Leg Avenue tackled and conquered the Halloween industry. With designs that mix fashion with fantasy, Leg Avenue Costumes are sexy, fun, and innovative. 650 different styles and growing, our costumes are sold at hundreds of speciality stores and large chain stores throughout the country. No one does sexy costumes better than Leg Avenue.

If you are yet to purchase your Halloween costume or just want to peep the site enter the code 'deerbrains30' at the the checkout to receive your 30% off all items.
Offer ends on 31st October 2010.

To view the collection please click here.
Let us know what you buy.