Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern will host its 13th annual Halloween Ball tonight with performances from local bands Hog Leg and Graball Freerun.
The night will include music, food and drinks. There will be a costume contest with cash prizes for best couple, scariest and the sexist costumes.
“It’s gonna be a great night. I’m excited to see the crowd in their costumes,” the Tavern’s owner Dave Hood said.
Graball Freerun will be the opening performance of the night.
“Graball is more of an up and coming band. They’ve played at the tavern before. The crowd really enjoys them,” Hood said.
Graball Freerun has five members: Nick Crews who plays lead guitars and vocals, Todd Hart on guitar and vocals, Dave Ammon on bass guitar and vocals, Zack Leach on the keyboard and Eric Tolbert on drums. Crews is an MSU political science and philosophy graduate and Ammon is a graphic design graduate.
“We got our start in Starkville. It’s our home,” Crews said.
Both bands are staples at the Tavern and have played there for years.
“Dave gave us our break. He believed in us enough to let us play and from there we have our fan base,” Ammon said.
The group’s moniker, Graball Freerun, comes from a unique combination of Mississippi phrases.
“Well, Graball is a back road in Yazoo City. Freerun came from the time in the 19th century when politicians would do speeches for their campaign. They would have a keg of whiskey and give their speeches,” Crews said.
Crews and Ammon have been playing together for three years. Hart and Tolbert joined them in February to complete the band.
Hart taught Crews how to play guitar when he was 14 years old.
“We’re a straightforward rock band. We really don’t do anything outside of that too much, but do play songs by other artists,” Tolbert said.
Each of the members have separate backgrounds in music. They combine their roots to create their original songs.
“We bring similar things to the table, a common ground, so we can make music,” Crews said.
The group’s musical inspirations are unique and extremely eclectic. The members get their inspiration from legendary groups such as Led Zeppelin, Primus, Pink Floyd and Radiohead.
“We more like the late ’60s, early ’70s rock. We explore the darker end of the psychedelic spectrum,” Crews said.
Ammon said they don’t compare themselves to other bands.
“Their sound is so unique. They write everything they perform and I’ve never seen them perform the same thing twice which makes them so different from every other band,” said Cobie Crews, junior communication major and Nick’s sister.
In the future the band looks to release an album expected to be out in January as well as touring in other states.
“We freakin’ love it. We just love playing our music,” Leach said.
The band members have an extreme and everlasting love for their music, Ammon said.
“We could be playing for five dollars or 500 dollars. We just wanna play. We love it,” Ammon said.
The members of the band said they are very excited about playing Halloween night.
“We have a special cover to close out the night. We wanna do everything we can to give them a good show,” Tolbert said.
While Hog Leg usually has four members, for this show there will be five because there will be a special appearance by Mark Goldbeck on keyboard. Jason Jones is lead vocalist and guitarist, Lee Graham performs on guitar and vocals, his brother Paul Graham on bass and Scott “Scooter” Thomas plays drums.
“Me and Lee trade between lead vocalists and guitar sometimes,” Jones said.
The name Hog Leg came from everyone in the band just sitting around and throwing around names, Jones said.
“There were so many bands and we got together and said, ‘Lets start a fun band and play songs we like and other people would like,'” Jones said.
The band has been playing since 1998. All the members are originally from Mississippi, but Jones now lives in Memphis.
“Hog Leg is real entertaining. They have played here many times over the years and the crowd goes wild for them,” Hood said.
The band plays a combination of rock, funk, blues, country and jazz. It stretches out to as many genres as it can.
“We don’t have a set genre or a set style, which is the best part [about our band]. We can just play whatever we want, like sitting a bar and say, ‘Oh I like that song, let’s play that,'” Jones said.