By Tristan Hostetter / Jambar Contributor
“Monster Mash” and “Thriller” aren’t the only songs that can be heard during spooky season. A night of cover bands will take the stage in costume at the fourth annual Wick-O-Ween on Oct. 17, in Youngstown.
A night of frights will haunt the halls of the former funeral home at The Wickyards, with six of the seven bands taking the stage as popular acts.
The venue at 77 Wick Ave., just north of Youngstown State University campus, hosts live music year-round. Owner Erik Engartner said the costume-encouraged Halloween show breaks attendance records year after year.
Wick-O-Ween welcomed 103 people in 2023 and raised the bar in 2025 with 125 attendees.
Live music and community are the main draws for Matt Striewski, guitarist for Volksweezer, who said his continued participation in the event conjures memories of practicing his favorite songs when he first learned to play.
“Small local venues are important for the community, no matter what community it is, Youngstown especially,” Striewski said. “We have some great places, but the small local guys — that’s everything.”
Striewski said Wick-O-Ween is an easy choice for local live-music fans because it’s full of familiar songs and gives them a good reason to dress up early for Halloween.
Engartner and Striewski said the crowds love hearing songs they can sing along to, though Engartner said that the venue itself also helps bring people through the door.
“Covers are generally popular. People want to hear what they know,” Engartner said. “People want to be in the ‘spook, haunted mansion’ that this venue looks like around Halloween time.”
The night’s lineup includes Negative Zen as Foo Fighters, Volksweezer as Weezer, The Head Trips as The Ramones, Crystal Visions as Fleetwood Mac, The Velvet Gentlemen as Supertramp, Blank Slate as Alice In Chains and Toxic Indie Boyfriend the Band.
“It’s just a fun event, just one time a year with very unique lineups and very one-of-a-kind performances,” Engartner said.
Artists Riley Burke and Ke’Von Gordon will also perform, as most bands are compilations of artists from preexisting local bands.
Though the stage will feature sets dedicated to famous groups, Toxic Indie Boyfriend will play songs the band describes as being found on “the iPod of millennial indie teen.”
Aaron Bowles, drummer for Jack and The Cadavers, will be behind the drum kit for Toxic Indie Boyfriend’s second appearance at Wick-O-Ween.
“It’s kind of a funny name in itself, but it’s to encapsulate the ‘toxic indie boyfriend’ music of the 2000s, basically. A lot of indie rock hits from that era,” Bowles said. “We thought it’d be a fun idea just to kind of stray away from playing as a single band cover band. There’s just too many good songs from that era to pick from.”
Toxic Indie Boyfriend’s set will include songs from acts such as Silver Sun Pickups, Mac DeMarco and Tame Impala.
The concert is $10 at the door and runs from 4:30-11 p.m.
While The Wickyards regularly offers tours of the funeral home during events, Engartner said the venue may be too crowded to offer tours this year.
