Pulse-sating Parties
Big sound small room: If you’re not into big bashes, pack in tightly at the free dive party with DJs Die Young and Baltimoroder and a live performance by DPony (members of Hooray For Earth, Wild Light and Zambri). O’Brien’s Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston, 9 p.m., free, obrienspubboston.com.
Forget about parties and gigs and spooky midnight movies - the scariest thing one can do on Halloween (or any other day, for that matter) is ride a bike through the mean streets of Boston. But on Halloween a few brave ghouls band together and span 14 miles of temperamental terrain: from Jamaica Plain to Brookline to Boston to Allston to Cambridge and then back to JP. Billed as a costume dance party on wheels, Truth Serum’s Halloween Bike Ride is led by the mystical stereo bike. Grab a costume, jump on some wheels and dodge those eggs launched off rooftops in true Boston bicycle style.
There was a time, before all the not-so-subliminal political messages and bloated rock-opera nonsense, when Green Day was a pretty cool band bursting out of the California punk scene. Back before Billie Joe found his God in eyeliner, just as the band tossed mud at the ill-advised Woodstock reunion and right before suburban soccer moms knew all the lyrics to “Basketcase,” we had was a pop-punk band so raw and gritty no one could have predicted sold-out shows at the TD Garden decades later. Tonight Lunch Records catchy-as-the-swine-flu indie band the Fatal Flaw take us back to Green Day’s savage young halcyon days, a time when they actually did play gigs with a $9 cover. Fatal Flaw frontman Joel Reader (no stranger to pop-punk history as a member of Pansy Division and the Mr. T Experience) unearthed an early Green Day set list from 1994, and word is the band will be faithful to it. Also performing in this ’90s-licious tribute night are Texas is the Reason (by members of White Wife, the Information, Barnicle, the Modifiers), Quicksand (Jack Burton and David Lo Pan) and Dag Nasty (Capital Radio). Go ahead, give yourself the creeps.
But one band that's caught Hotline's attention takes the stage at Great Scott in Allston, performing alongside sure-to-be-huge-in-2010 local dance-soul kids Mystery Roar (members of Cassette, the Bon Savants, Westward Trail!!) and Los Angeles' mack-maven Har Mar Superstar. 
V.I.P.J. of THE COOL KIDS (Chicago)The Toxic Avenger - Toxic Is Dead from IHEARTCOMIX Records on Vimeo.
Dating back to Ben Sisto's Honeypump booking era several years ago, unexpectedly discovering new local music on Sunday nights at Great Scott has become a personal tradition of mine. Bands like Big Digits and UV Protection first crossed my path in a half-full room in a last gasp for the weekend, and just hanging out catching whatever was on-stage that particular night remains some of my favorite memories of random Allston occurrences. 
I have two pairs of tickets to give away to tonight's We Have Band show at Great Scott, where you will find me by the bar with my head on the bar. Been feeling this UK trio pretty hard lately, and Great Scott continues its fab Sunday night live music series like whoa. "Hear It In The Cans" is some hypnotic shit, and word from CMJ is that this is one blipped-out rapid-fire live show. 
From a recent Hotline post of mine: Tuesday night's La Roux show at the Paradise RC should be one of the best of the season. But if you haven't already gotten tickets, now's the time to do so. There's only about 20 tickets left, and a Live Nation source tells Hotline the highly-anticipated show should sell out by tomorrow morning.
RSL founder Ryan Spaulding is offering up four of his favorite Northeast acts: the indie-folk of The Grownup Noise, the atmospheric rock of Blizzard of '78, New York synthy pop-rock kids Bridges & Powerlines and Quincy-based theatrical rock upstarts Tik Tok.
Statement from the band: "The Rakes have always been very adamant and proud of the fact that we give 100% to every gig we've ever played. If we can't give it everything then we won't do it. That was the rule we set ourselves from day one.
In the National Hockey League, there’s no team that embodies rock ’n’ roll like the big bad Boston Bruins. So it’s fitting the team has paired up with the Hard Rock Cafe for its first away-game viewing party of the season while the black and gold is in Ottawa taking on the Senators. Bruins mascot Blades and the team’s Ice Girls will be in attendance, and there’ll be raffles and prizes. But there’s also a Bruins-themed cocktail list, which got Cheap Thrills thinking - what if fans in attendance selected their adult beverage based on the achievement of each player? After all, the Hard Rock Cafe bar is stacked. So if German Marco Sturm scores a goal, order a shot of Jagermeister; if Patrice Bergeron nets one, rally up a Cognac; if young netminder Tuukka Rask gets the start, pour some Finlandia vodka; if Americans Tim Thomas [stats] or Blake Wheeler stand out, roll with a Budweiser. And of course, with a predominantly Canadian roster, just keep that Molson and Labatt chilled on ice, just like the B’s themselves.
There is one Vagiant battle brewing between Los Angeles and Boston. As the decade-old California-based comedy group Vagiant has forced our beloved female Allston punk band to slap a “Boston” onto its moniker, the ladies of rock trudge on tonight with their album release party at Great Scott. “Trash Candy” continues their own potty-mouth punk in the sonic thrash vein of the Ramones and Stiff Little Fingers, all while declaring love for all things beer, chicken wings and “The Karate Kid.” But this is more than just hot inked-up chicks playing speedball rock ’n’ roll - they’ll certainly arm wrestle you after the show if you get too drunk and out-of-line. Also on the fiery bill are Planetoid, Tenefly Vipers and Razors in the Night, featuring vocalist Troy Schoeller, owner of Allston’s very cool shock-rock clothing boutique Horror Business. Wear plastic vampire fangs to this bash and prepare to bleed.
This year's annual FNX Radio "Miracle on Tremont Street" concert features much rock but no coal. Taking the reindeer reigns for a tidy-yet-forceful holiday bash are Texas-sized indie band Spoon, French synth rockers Phoenix and everyone's favorite Cambridge-dance-band-gone-global, Passion Pit. 
While I don't mean to be too revealing, I do have on on good authority that Green Day's greatest song, "Going to Pasalacqua" (off 1991 compilation "1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours"), will be included in the Fatal Flaw's set. That's worth the ticket price right there, kids.
"Tom Brady has an unwed child, but it's okay because he wins Super Bowls. Tom Brady is teaching us to have sex outside of marriage, to commit fornication, don't marry and do the right thing, don't take responsibility for your actions, have a good time no matter who you hurt in this world, go from sex partner to sex partner, and it's okay because of who I am. How many of you dad's cheer on Tom in the Super Bowl while your kids are watching?" 
Boy oh boy, Sunday nights have come a long way since Ben Sisto was booking weird noise shit, huh? Well, by now you've heard about this one, as UK post-punk legends Echo & the Bunnymen roll up to our little clubhouse and do it clean for an elite batch of ticket-gulping hipsters. Well, shit. Great Scott has come along way since I booked the 8mm Fuzz be *perform as* Echo & the Bunnymen on Halloween a few years ago, huh? 
