Looking for a Halloween show this coming weekend in Central New York? Look no further than Big Shrimp’s annual Halloween Show, taking place at Funk n Waffles on Saturday, October 25.
Now in its 8th consecutive year, the Halloween Extravaganza has become a staple of the Northeast music scene. Originally launched as a Baked Shrimp production and later passed on to Big Shrimp, the event is known for its high-concept themes, elaborate stage production, and surprise artistic elements.
October 25 also marks the first Halloween show with the current band lineup, as the band arrives at their one-year anniversary in November.
Here are three great reasons to get to the Salt City this weekend for Big Shrimp’s Halloween show.
The theme
While the theme may be obvious based on the flyer, the exact theme will be announced at the show itself. You might expect a particular soundtrack or themed show, or perhaps various versions of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s parody “Gump.” While the poster art may look obvious, life is like a Big Shrimp show, you never know what you’re gonna get.
It’s an Upstate Tradition
Halloween is a tradition for Big Shrimp, and guitarist/vocalist Jared Cowen has made each Halloween performance for the past eight years a big production, creating an extravaganza from Sage Entertainment, with the first six years of the event having been hosted by Baked Shrimp.
“Every year is very exciting to come up with new ideas and push boundaries. Last year, I went to it saying we weren’t going to go nuts … but we still performed an entire improvised set behind The Creature of The Black Lagoon, and brought a boat into the venue for the costume contest.”
Unique Production and Costume Contest
Each year’s theme has its own unique production aspects, and this year, Cowen notes this show will have the most props yet. Working with Kristov Howzah (Kozmik Sirkus Productions) to create cool props and ideas to tie into a storyline, Big Shrimp will also be bringing in Jim Houle on the lights.
As always, a costume contest is held at the end of the second set, where fans can dress however they want, with bonus points to song-related themes. This year’s prizes include a $50 gift card to Wildflowers, a free pizza pie from Fat Boy Pizza Co, along with some Big Shrimp merch.
This band is truly incredible and is something I am so proud to be a part of, and I think I can speak for all four of us that the feeling is mutual across the board. On top of the talent, everyone has a very mutual respect of one another, is open to new ideas, and just functions as a unit like no other band I’ve ever been in.
The material that Daniel, Max, & Henry are writing is all top notch, and it’s fun for us to get to sit in the practice room and flesh out arrangements of things. While most of the material at these recent shows have been new within the past few months to a year or so, we are bringing in some of Baked Shrimp’s old material, which is pretty cool to now hear and reinvent as a four piece with a new band. Some of the stuff kicks really hard, that we’re considering re-recording a few of Baked’s old songs down the line.
Jared Cowen – Big Shrimp
On the horizon for Big Shrimp is the group’s upcoming debut album, planned for release in mid-2026, with singles planned for later this year.
Big Shrimp will return to Albany for a show at Ophelia’s on Saturday, November 22nd. They’ll also stop in Buffalo (10/24), Pembroke, MA w/ Magic Beans (11/7), New Hope, PA (11/8), Greenlawn (11/28), Hartford (12/6), Greensboro, NC (12/18), Richmond, VA (12/19) and Columbia, PA (12/20).
The band will round out the year with a very exciting free Phish After-Party on December 29 at Jack Doyle’s, just around the corner from MSG.
Doors open at 7:00 PM with showtime at 8:00 PM. Get tickets today.
→ Continue reading at NYS Music
