Off With Their Heads as The Kenny Powers’ in Detroit for Halloween w/Pippsy Pinwheel.
Off With Their Heads (as The Kenny Powers’) in Detroit on their Halloween Tour - All Photos by Paul Holstein.
Last year's Off With Their Heads Halloween tour was off the hook, with Pippsy Pinwheel as the host and Off With Their Heads costumed as The Minfits (a cross between the Minions from the movie "Despicable Me" and The Misfits), and OWTH starting with a set of The Misfits songs. This year Pippsy was back, OWTH took on the identity "The Kenny Powers'," and warm-ups I Are Citizen and Smug LLC were on the bill. If you aren't familiar with Kenny Powers, he's a character from the TV show "Eastbound and Down," and Ryan Young (signer for OWTH) was his spitting image. Small's Bar was decked out with Halloween decorations, and for the first time I met the infamous owner, Mike Mouyianis, who turned out to be a serious OWTH fan.
I knew that I Are Citizen (a local band) featured Eric Burleson, aka Eric B. Elligerent (ex-Hatchet Job, Gutter Punx), on drums, but was surprised to also see Rob "The Italian Saint" Dziak, aka Rob Rossetti (ex-Bill Bondsman, Bump-N-Uglies), also take the stage (it was only his second show, replacing their prior bass player). I'd missed their set at several recent shows (including The Briefs last week), so I made sure to get there early this time. It was well worth it. Great set, which they finished with a cover of Bob Seger's "Feel Like A Number."
I'm not going to say that Pippsy Pinwheel stole the show, but her act was outstanding, and I honestly would have come down just to see her. She took the stage between each band, and the first round featured bending one of her fingers completely back to touch the back of her hand and then sticking her tongue in a mousetrap. It seemed like these had to be tricks, but as the night progressed, it seemed more and more like she was just really doing these things.
Smug LLC was up next and was more like a one-man hip-hop band than any sort of punk rock artist. He had all of the music pre-recorded, and a projector that was showing the lyrics as he rapped. Not my thing, but kudos for him getting up there and giving it his all to an audience of punk rockers. OWTH has been known to tour with unorthodox acts that surprise me (on one of their tours they had comedian Ben Roy open for them, and I've been a big fan of his ever since), so I figure Smug LLC may grow on me.
And then Pippsy was back, this time dragging out her treasure chest of props. Round two included pounding a long steel nail, and later a spoon, into her head through her nose. Maybe the most impressive thing she did was after sucking a balloon through her nose and out of her mouth—she made a balloon animal from it behind her back! She also repeated a few tricks from last year, including the milk and cookies bit (dripping milk out of her eyes) and sword swallowing (with what appeared to be a real sword). It was amazing, and for the most part I'm convinced these were not tricks—she was actually doing these things.
Finally, Off With Their Heads (The Kenny Powers') took the stage. They kicked off the set with "Start Walking" and stopped after a few songs to take requests (which included crowd favorite "Janie"). True to the Halloween tradition, they played a block of cover songs this time by Creedence Clearwater Revival (including "Bad Moon Rising," "Fortunate Son," and "Did You Ever See The Rain?"). They stopped again for the annual Halloween costume contest hosted by Pippsy Pinwheel, which went to Teen Wolf this year, and then continued with OWTH songs that included my favorites, "Drive" and "Clear The Air." Another great year; I'll be back in 2026 if they are.
