Sunday, October 28, 2007

A Rocky Horror Halloween

By Sarah Poulton

After partying with the bands at The Zou’s Rocky Horror Halloween Party at Cedar’s Lounge Saturday night, you’ll want to do the Time Warp again and again and again.

The Zou, along with the Dead Beat Poets and Jones for Revival, tore up the stage during the fifth annual event. The Zou played their original songs in costume during their first set, then snuck behind stage during the costume contest and returned in full-out drag to play the soundtrack of the cult classic flick, “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

During their original set, The Zou stuck to their “darker” songs. The crowd sang along to tracks from “The Pinebox,” such as its title track and “Lmnop.” Fans also heard stuff off their original album like “Sleazy” and "How to Build an H-Bomb," and even unreleased track "They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To."

After years of being hidden by facial hair, Zou bassist Murad Shorrab shaved his face between sets. Lead vocalist Khaled Tabbara donned white stripper shoes to accent his black dress and white feather boa, but that was nothing compared to guitarist Rob Thorndike’s “unveiling of Rocky.”

Tabbara said he was especially pleased with the crowd that came out for the party. He said it was great because when he messed up the lyrics to one of the Rocky Horror songs, the crowd got him right back on track.

“This is my favorite show of the year,” Tabbara said. “The crowd was better than imaginable... It was so much fucking fun.”

Lead vocalist for Jones for Revival Jim DeCapua agreed with Tabbara.

“I think our set was better last night,” DeCapua said comparing the show at Cedar's to Friday night's show at Kent, “but it’s been a great weekend for us.”

The crowd was a mix of sexy impersonators dressed as professionals, people wearing random junk they found in someone’s closet and a few Rocky Horror die-hards dressed as movie characters.

The event was sponsored by Valley24.com. Other sponsors included Youngstown Local Music, Rusty Waters, Defend Youngstown, Team Rizzo Landscaping, Ohio Vintage, Ampreon Recorder and Cortland Computer.

In an earlier interview, Tabbara said it’s good to see all the people of Youngstown coming together for the show. He described it as a celebration of local artists.

“This really is a lot of Youngstown people doing Youngstown things,” Tabbara said. “It’s a very pro-Yo event.”