Halloween at the Metro

 I hadn’t got around to posting this yet, but this is a true grail that I’m beyond lucky to own. The story behind how it came in to my hands is simple; a pal was selling some records at a decent price and I was happy to buy it. I hadn’t spent £100+ on a 7” in a while, if ever - so I pondered it for a minute. But only for a minute. 

Alkaline Trio - Halloween - Asian Man Records - First Press - Orange /3000

I think the story of this one is pretty common lore by now. Alkaline Trio plays a couple of shows at the Metro in Chicago over Halloween a good couple of decades ago. They give this 7” away at the shows, and it has two Misfits covers on it. The cover art is a rip of an old Misfits promo photo, and the back cover has the famous Halloween 7” pumpkin logo. The remaining copies of this 7” were given to Blood Pact members and as far as I’m aware no copies were ever sold by Asian Man or Trio directly. 

For Fiend Club Members Only is a nice touch on the centre label. The version of Halloween on this 7” is perfect, haunting and gives the song a whole new life. Having it physically feels really special. Some Trio fans aren’t into the songs here at all, but this is a match made in purgatory for me. Plus it’s unlikely I’ll be buying any OG Misfits 7”’s anytime soon. 

I ended up with number 0013/3000 which lets be honest is the best damn number you could hope to have for this record. The ticket stub has a little story too. 

The 7” is signed by all 3 members of Trio at the Manchester date that my friend attended. He took the record along and got it signed, and kept the ticket stub in the sleeve. There was a Blood Pact patch in there too, but I passed it to a friend who is a HUGE trio fan (she was in the Blood Pact but sadly never got the patch she was promised, so I felt it was better off with her). She semi recently gave me an Alkaline Trio grail too that I’ll get around to posting. 

So here’s some last little bits of dumb trivia:

•Some copies that were sent through the Blood Pact were not numbered, leading to the assumption that more than 3000 were pressed. 

•Heather Gabel is the person creeping in the coffin on the cover. 

•There was a long standing rumour that Mike Park was going to repress this 7” on Halloween, but it’s never happened. 

•The label designation is AMR97 - which lines up with the Trio song that finished out the Halloween sets at the Metro. The live DVD of those shows is fantastic and I watch it every year when I wrap Christmas presents.