Hookahween: ekoostik hookah takes Halloween night at the Newport

Columbus's longest-running jam institution plays Newport Music Hall on Saturday, Oct. 31, with Brahctopus opening — all ages, doors at 7.

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and in Columbus that settles one question early: where the tie-dye crowd will be. ekoostik hookah plays Newport Music Hall on Saturday, Oct. 31, a night the band is billing as Hookahween, with Brahctopus opening.

The venue's calendar has doors at 7 p.m., and the band's own events page lists the show as all ages. (The band's site spells the openers "Brohctopus"; the venue lists them as Brahctopus.) The Newport holds about 1,700, which makes it one of the bigger rooms a hometown band can fill on a holiday night, and Hookah has the history to do it.

The band traces itself to 1991 and, in its own telling, to a smoky basement bar in Columbus. Founding members Dave Katz and Steve Sweney, with drummer Eric Lanese, have been the long-running core. In the 35 years since, the group says it has played thousands of shows in more than 40 states, with festival stops that include Bonnaroo and All Good. But the center of gravity has always been Ohio, and Columbus in particular: in our records, ekoostik hookah has played this city more than any other market, 62 shows and counting.

A hometown band, a holiday on a Saturday, and a room big enough to make it feel like a festival.

That festival instinct is part of the band's DNA. Hookah runs Hookahville, its own long-standing gathering, and the band's site shows the festival still going, with a Hookahville 56 lineup announced. The most recent record we could confirm grew straight out of it: *The Schwa Album*, which the band calls its 12th official full-length, came out May 2, 2023, and was recorded live at Hookahville 51. The band's news page has also mentioned a further album finished in mixing and mastering, but we could not confirm a title or release date, so don't go in expecting a release-show setlist.

What you should go in expecting is the long-form version of the band. Hookah is a jam band, and a Halloween date gives a jam band license to get weird — costumes in the crowd, a looser feel on stage, the kind of night longtime fans compare notes about for years. The Newport, on High Street across from campus, has hosted generations of those nights.

Brahctopus gets things started, and the all-ages billing means this is one of the few big Halloween-night shows in town that the whole family of fans can attend — the parents who saw Hookah in the '90s and the kids who grew up hearing about it.

Get there when doors open, pick your spot on the floor, and settle in. On Halloween night, Columbus's own jam institution is home, and the Newport will be the loudest costume party on High Street.

Sources: əkoostik hookah — official site (ekoostik.com); əkoostik hookah — Events (ekoostik.com); əkoostik hookah — The Band (ekoostik.com); əkoostik hookah — The Schwa Album is out now (ekoostik.com); əkoostik hookah — News (ekoostik.com); PromoWest Live — Newport Music Hall calendar (promowestlive.com); Wikipedia — Ekoostik hookah (en.wikipedia.org)