Sunday night at The Pageant Ludo closed out their final night of HalLUDOween 2023. For those unfamiliar with HalLUDOween it began back in 2018. The band had been on hiatus since 2012 and tweeted that they would do a “Back from the Dead! One Night Only!” show at The Pageant in St. Louis on Oct. 27 to celebrate 15 years of the band and the 10-year anniversary of You’re Awful, I Love You. Dubbed “HalLUDOween”, the show sold out in less than 20 minutes. A late show was added that sold out almost as quickly. In 2019 the band announced that they would perform a two-show series at the Pageant: “HalLUDOween 2019”, consisting of “All Shadow’s Eve” on November 1 and “Quiet Pines Senior Prom” on November 2. Tickets went on sale that day; both shows sold out within an hour and a third, late show on November 2, titled “Rumble in Transylvania.” Since then HalLUDOween has been a staple for Halloween weekend here in St. Louis.

Nerdcore/Lit Hop artist MC Lars got the night started. Lars is known for known for wearing a copy of the original Legend of Zelda around his neck on a gold chain and rapping about things like Edger Allan Poe, Game of Thrones, literature and other nerd culture topics. I was introduced to MC Lars back in 2004 when someone I worked with saw him open for Bowling for Soup. Since then I have tried to catch him whenever he is in town whether it was on tour on the Vans Warped Tour or his own tour. A few standouts from tonight’s set included ‘Annabel Lee R.I.P.’, ‘Lars Attacks’, ‘Dragon Blood’ (a song he said he wrote about Daenerys Targaryen before the last season of Game of Thrones), and ‘Mr. Raven’ a song based off The Raven by Edger Allan Poe who Lars said he was introduced to thanks to the first Simpsons Tree House of Horror.

Up next was Tom Higgenson (Of Plain White T’s) doing an acoustic set. A few songs from the set were ‘1, 2, 3, 4’, ‘Hey There Delilah’, ‘The House on Shady Lane’ (a song someone pointed out would fit the mood of the night and was only available as a free download back in 2011 but is also on Youtube), and also a medley of new songs off Plain White T’s new album that will be coming out mid November.

As the lights dimmed the theme song from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure started to play and the band came out all dressed as Pee-wee and flanked on both sides of the stage by twelve foot skeletons. Cheers and applause burst from the crowd, most who had been to a three nights of shows. The band kicked it off with ‘Part I: Broken Bride’, ‘Whipped Cream’, and ‘Roxy’. Each nights setlist of twenty songs is different to a degree, whether it is the order they appear, some songs are not played each night, some are done acoustic one night but not another night, or doing a cover of Ghostbusters to close out the second night.

Setlist:

Part I: Broken Bride

Whipped Cream

Roxy

Part II: Tonight’s the Night

Manta Rays

Scare Me

Hey Friends

Elektra’s Complex

Topeka

Sara’s Song

The Horror of Our Love

Anything for You

An Italian Werewolf in St. Louis

Go-Getter Greg

Save Our City

Hum Along (Acoustic)

Lake Pontchartrain (Acoustic)

Love Me Dead

Good Will Hunting By Myself (Audience member Kat performed monologue)

Skeletons on Parade