More treats that tricks awaited music fans at Station Inn on Halloween Night as Becky Buller Band added a holiday mix to their set list, as well as a costume contest. With the band decked out as the Star Trek crew, Buller and the Band chose “to boldly go” to through the range of her musical frontiers, opening with the funny but nightmarish “I Dream in Technicolor” and “Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil” from her 2020 album Distance and Time.
Building on the Halloween theme, they performed the classic “Bringing Mary Home” and the Byrds’ “Mr. Spaceman,” as well as Dr. Demento inspired numbers, such as “The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati,” “Star Trekkin’”and a parody of “The Monster Mash” (“Give Us Some Cash”) with a nod to the merch table.
They also played songs from some of her older albums, including “Topaz Moon.”
With long-time bandmates Ned Luberecki on banjo and Daniel Harden on bass and newer members guitarist Jacob Groopman and mandolinist Wes Lee, the Becky Buller Band displays the kind of magic fans come to expect. Groopman performed the Tim O’Brien song “Walk Beside Me” and provided harmony as well. Buller also played some of her new material for an album due out some time next year, including a song about Jonah “In the Belly of the Whale.”
The band deviated from the set list and took a request, performing her recent rendition of James Taylor’s “Millworker.” Aubrey Shamel, nominated for IBMA’s 2023 Sound Engineer of the Year, joined the band on stage, singing harmony with Buller on her song about the Bell Witch, then singing lead on “Billie Jean.”
The band also brought in a touch of old-time gospel with “This World Is Not My Home.” Buller offered up her “prayer for all of us and for the world” as she sang “Make Us to Shine.” For an encore, they ended on an ode to Luberecki’s neighborhood, co-written with Buller “Englewood upon Stratford” before the audience headed back out into the Halloween night, some in street clothes, others dressed as scarecrows, hippies, Mary Poppins, and major league baseball players.