Promotional photo

Avant-rock/space-pop trio Fake Babies: It’s a rock show, it’s a party, it’s an open house.

Fake Babies
With M.T. Bearington, If Jesus Had Machine Guns, Eula, Etta Place and Seafire. 8 p.m., Oct. 31. The Submarine, 75 Daggett St., Apt. G-2. Free. myspace.com/fakebabiesmusic.

This Halloween, avant-rock/space-pop trio Fake Babies are hosting a free show at their place in Daggett Street Square. It's a rock show; it's a party; it's an open house. It's the first in what they hope will be a series of public happenings there.

For those who've never been, Daggett Street Square is a warren of loft spaces, inhabited largely by artists and musicians in an old industrial building near Yale-New Haven Hospital. Fake Babies themselves live in a ground-level corner loft, big and open enough for bands to play and a crowd to gather. They've gathered a hefty lineup of bands: themselves, modern psychedelicists M.T. Bearington, one-man art-pop band If Jesus Had Machine Guns, post-punkers Eula, shoegazey dream-pop band Etta Place and groovin' electro-rockers Seafire.

They've dubbed the spot The Submarine, because "it kind of feels like that sometimes, y'know?," explains Fake Babies singer/multi-instrumentalist Bob Nuzzello. "There are pipes everywhere, and it's half underground."

Nuzzello says he and his bandmates were inspired to put on shows in their loft by "warehouse things in Baltimore, Brooklyn, Philadelphia," gatherings that are "not straight house parties, but not just shows." While those cities and dozens of others have active warehouse/loft scenes, underground cultural events that happen outside of the traditional rock-club circuit, New Haven has less of that than one might expect from a college town where a lot of musicians live.

Part of that's because, in the past several years, such shows here have often taken place in basements and living rooms, where noise complaints can lead to authorities shutting down the proceedings. Part of that's a simple shortage of available warehouses. But Nuzzello feels confident about opening up The Submarine to the public.

For one thing, he says, parties are part of Daggett Street's culture — having a loft there is different from living in a "normal" residential neighborhood.

"No one moves here if they're not down with a cool party, or with the loudness," he says. "There used to be parties all over the building."

It's a laissez-faire vibe. The Submarine itself, he says, was rumored to have been, years ago, "some sort of after-hours ... something involved with sex."

For another, the hosts got clearance from a police officer at the nearby substation, who even gave them advice on where attendees might be able to park.

"She was really helpful," Nuzzello says, "so we figured no one was gonna give us trouble."

Nuzzello says one of the main reasons Fake Babies didn't start hosting shows earlier was something more personal — The Submarine is their living and practice space, where they recorded their recently-released self-titled EP (a CD-R that comes wrapped in a printed, folded-up and stapled sheet of paper).

"We just cleaned it the other week," he says. "We wanted to make sure it could be feasible without ruining our house." Having the first Submarine show on Halloween fits: "Over the past 10 years, the biggest parties [at Daggett Street] are on Halloween," Nuzzello says.

The music of the bands playing, as it turns out — at times dreamy or nightmarey, fantastical, gothy, eerie and slightly haunted — fits the holiday, too.

Plus, Fake Babies plan to give out party favors. "There's gonna be a bowl of cigarettes, like instead of candy," Nuzzello says. "It'll be smoky, but whatever."

Fake Babies hope to host shows, says Nuzzello, "once a month, every couple months, depending on how it goes." For now, they're trying their collective hand at adding a few new contour lines to New Haven's musical landscape.

Halloween Rocks!

Local rockers Covin just opened for horror-punk originators The Misfits at Toad's last week. Wonder if the headliners knew Covin was planning a set made up entirely of Misfits songs at their show at Café Nine (250 State St., 203-789-8281, cafenine.com) this Halloween? Some would argue The Misfits themselves, in the absence of founding singer and chief songwriter Glenn Danzig, are more or less a Misfits tribute act these days — so if you're gonna see any Misfits tribute this fall, it might as well be on Halloween. Broken headline the show; 76% Uncertain are also on the bill and The Black Noise Scam are playing a set entirely of Black Flag songs.

At Rudy's Bar & Grill (372 Elm St., 203-865-1242, myspace.com/rudysnewhaven) on Oct. 31, it's Kiss tribute Double Platinum, formed just for the occasion by local luminaries John Paul (of The Villains; also a Rudy's bartender) as Paul Stanley, John Meah (of Sex and Death U.S.A., The Hymans and Puckish) as Gene Simmons, Matty Drums (of Sex and Death U.S.A.) as Peter Chris and Tom Villain (of The Villains) as Ace Frehley. Live DJs Jazzy Jess, Christian Science and "Live Mike" Cooper — responsible for giving the Double Platinum band its name — will spin between sets.

"No one asked me to be in the band," Cooper says. "I cried for a few days straight." To make up for it, Cooper might show up dressed as Vinnie Vincent — the guitarist who played on a few Kiss albums and a tour in the '80s, wearing "ankh warrior" make-up. Cash prizes will be awarded for the best costumes in the crowd.

Out in New London, there's a "Rock-n-Roll Creepshow" happening in the outdoor Hygienic Art Park (79 Bank St., New London; 860-443-8001, hygienic.org). It's an evening of spooked-out rock and arty weirdness with Total Bolsheviks, Get Haunted and Dorian James & the Brood, plus scary movies being screened. It's an early show — 7 p.m. — followed by an official after-party at The Oasis Pub (16 Bank St., New London; 860-447-3929, myspace.com/oasispub), where Fatal Film also plays a set of Misfits songs, The Hempsteadys play a set of punk classics and Brava Spectre performs as ... Fatal Film.

At least that's what they're saying.

—Kathleen Cei and Brian LaRue