Three days past Halloween, a spooky punk rock show overtook DeKalb’s premiere venue, The House Cafe, 263 E. Lincoln Highway, on Monday night.

The results, however, were much less spectacular than expected and left me with a poor taste in my mouth.

Michael Graves, best known as the singer for punk legends the Misfits during the 1990s, headlined the show and really let me down.

First off, there are only a handful of performers who can transition from being in a punk band to singing alone with just an acoustic guitar, and Graves is not one of them. Don’t get me wrong, he was a really nice guy, signing autographs all night and hanging out for some of the opening bands, but his music was just lost on me.

The crowd went crazy when he sang his Misfits songs, but his own work drew yawns. I became disappointed by his set. Instead of having great solo material, it felt like Graves was OK with resting on his reputation to carry his performance. Also, it hurts that his solo work is just not very good.

By the time he was done, I was ready to leave and may have even been the first one out the door.

So, my advice would be to skip Graves the next time he comes to town, unless people singing songs they did not write from a band they were only in for five years is your bag. In which case, feel free to enjoy the contrived music coming from people still yearning for recognition.

Opening the show was a horror-themed punk rock group called The Horrids. They all looked about 17, but thrashed with the ferocity reserved for bands with much more polish.

Their songs were fast and somewhat melodic, and they certainly had a few fans there just to see them. They tended to sound like an old (good) AFI album, mixed with the spirit of older 1980s hardcore punk, a la the Circle Jerks.

Bachelor Party Weekend, also part of the night, is not really a DeKalb band, but it would be hard to prove that since they have played at the House three times since Thursday.

They came out and twisted people’s minds, as their brand of disjointed rock ‘n’ roll served to confuse the fans in the crowd that were only expecting punk music all night. The drummer was really on, keeping rhythm better than any of the others all night.

The music was a very welcome change from the somewhat bland music that made up the other sets (distinguishing punk from other punk is a difficult task). The set was just plain enjoyable, and I do not plan on missing them the next time they hit DeKalb. To be honest, Bachelor Party Weekend stole the show.

It goes to show that even though you might be famous, talent will always overshadow familiarity.