OC LIVE : Revelers’ Haunts Get Into the Spirit of Halloween

With the possible exception of New Year’s Eve, Halloween is the holiday for serious partyers, the one night of the year when, freed from expectations to resolve (even insincerely) to become a better person, you can be incredibly disgusting and get away with it. In fact, you might find yourself rewarded for it.

This column attempts to reclaim the true hedonistic spirit of Halloween from the amusement parks (Knott’s) and bands (Oingo Boingo) that have cornered the spook celebration market, and to return it to the season’s dedicated revelers.

* Funhouse returns to its original Huntington Beach Old World location for a special Halloween party Tuesday night.

Promoter Gary Tesh promises “a mind-bending psychedelic experience” that includes a “gruesomely graphic blood-red slide show,” a gigantic club entrance maze and the O.C. debut of Foothill regulars Seis Musicians Especial, a seven-piece acid jazz/funk band that combines horns, loops and samples with electrifying results. Local lounge favorite Super Cheez also will perform in the back room.

Exercise your right to dress a la grotesque! Local merchants including Black Flys, Schroff and Meow have donated prizes, so with macabre determination, a right-minded ghoul could walk away with a lot more than the admission price in spiffy merchandise.

Funhouse at Old World, 7561 Center Drive, Huntington Beach. Tuesday, 8:30 p.m. $10 advance, $12 door. (310) 437-7456. * A more violent yet still bloodless alternative, also on Tuesday, would be Virtual World’s Halloween Bash at Costa Mesa’s Triangle Square.

The thought of racing around blasting humans masquerading as monsters (or vice versa?) with virtual-reality weapons strikes us as assuredly worthy of Halloween, but who determines when a vampire is actually dead? Perhaps KSCA-FM (101.9) deejay Rich Guzman, who will oversee the costume contest and broadcast the winner’s name live at 9 p.m. The winner and seven friends will be among the first to try the Tesla cockpit, the newest offering from Virtual World, at its corporate office, before the cockpit is available to the general public.

All guests in costume will receive 50% off “missions” all day (full price is $9), and everyone wandering by between 6 and 9 p.m. will receive a goody bag with coupons and discounts from Triangle Square merchants.

Virtual World at Triangle Square, corner of Newport and Harbor boulevards, Costa Mesa. Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Admission free; $9 per virtual “mission.” (714) 646-2495.

* Friday night, Dark’s Art Parlor in Santa Ana hosts “The Darkening II,” an evening of performance and art featuring the League of Vampiric Bards reading Gothic poetry followed by Tess recording artists Trance to the Sun. Spooky artwork and literature will be on display and for sale. Get there early to view unsettling images from Peter Cunis, Katherine Du Tiel and Jason Voss, among others.

The Darkening II at Dark’s Art Parlor, 1405 N. Main St., Santa Ana. Friday, 8 p.m. $6. (714) 647-9733.

* Finally, for those of you looking for a more conventional outing, the Cramps, the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black and the Toadies--and before that, a horror film fest--open for White Zombie at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Saturday. The inspiring guest host: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Though, unfortunately, the Cramps are not headlining, no band more fully captures the meaning of Halloween. When singer Lux Interior is in his rarest of rare form, pandemonium ensues. (Warning: This occasionally includes the onstage whipping of band mates and/or fans). Headliner White Zombie shares some of the same comic-bookish appeal but pales in comparison to the musical and psychological uneasiness generated by its maudlin forebears (or is it pallbearers?).

The Cramps, Toadies, Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, White Zombie at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. Saturday, 8 p.m. $21.50. (714) 855-4515.