Balkan Bump closes out the Creeper's Ball on Halloween night

Will Magid's brass-and-bass project headlines Night 2 of Crystal Bay Casino's Halloween party in the Crown Room this Saturday, Oct 31, with Smoked Out Soul and Funksalot.

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and on the North Shore that means the Crown Room gets the whole costumed weekend. Crystal Bay Casino's Creeper's Ball runs two nights, Friday and Saturday. The closer, on Saturday, Oct 31, is a trumpet player who builds dance music out of Balkan brass.

Balkan Bump headlines Night 2 in the Crown Room at 9pm, with Smoked Out Soul and Funksalot also on the bill. The show is 21+. Tickets are through the casino's Tixr page, and the night is listed on the Crystal Bay Casino site. If you want the full weekend, Night 1 on Friday, Oct 30 has The Funk Hunters with Rambo Party. Visit Reno Tahoe's Halloween guide lists both nights.

Balkan Bump is the project of Will Magid, who his own site describes as a trumpet player, producer and ethnomusicologist. The music combines heavy electronic production with traditional Balkan brass melodies, Middle Eastern sounds and American hip-hop. It's a mix that comes from the jam-and-bass world, where a horn line over a big low end gets a room moving faster than almost anything. Magid plays the trumpet himself, so this isn't a DJ set with a sample of brass in it. There's a horn player up front.

That makes him a good fit for the Crown Room. The Crown Room holds about 550, so it's big enough for a real dance floor and small enough that the stage stays close. The Creeper's Ball has been a fixture there for years. Earlier editions on the casino's Tixr page featured Tainted Love, Mustache Harbor and The Wonderbread 5. The pitch is the same as always: live music, costumes, casino action and late-night partying. This year it leans more toward electronic, with The Funk Hunters on Friday and Balkan Bump on Saturday.

There's a horn player up front, and that's the point.

This is our records' first Lake Tahoe date for Balkan Bump. So for a lot of the North Shore, Saturday is the first chance to hear the project in a room built for it.

What to know: wear the costume. This is a Halloween party first, and the crowd dresses for it. It's a 21+ night inside a casino, so bring ID.

On a lake where most Halloween nights end with a bar costume contest, a trumpet player leading a room full of skeletons through a Balkan brass line is a better way to spend it.

Sources: Balkan Bump w/ Smoked Out Soul & Funksalot – The Creeper's Ball Night 2 (Tixr, Crystal Bay Casino) (tixr.com); The Funk Hunters w/ Rambo Party – The Creeper's Ball Night 1 (Tixr, Crystal Bay Casino) (tixr.com); Crystal Bay Casino (crystalbaycasino.com); The Best Halloween Parties and Events – Visit Reno Tahoe (visitrenotahoe.com); About – Balkan Bump (balkanbump.com); Balkan Bump (balkanbump.com); Tainted Love "Creeper's Ball" (Tixr, Crystal Bay Casino) (tixr.com); Creepers Ball w/ Mustache Harbor (Tixr, Crystal Bay Casino) (tixr.com); The Creepers Ball w/ The Wonderbread 5 (Tixr, Crystal Bay Casino) (tixr.com)