October could be our favorite month to see live music, thanks in part to the temperate weather and full venue schedules. School’s finally back in session, leading most bands to play their own shows instead of the banding together for the shitty touring festivals that occur every summer. And the best part about October is that it peaks on Halloween, when bands pull out all the stops.

This week Grousing The Aisles looks at three fantastic shows from October, and then as an added bonus, we’ve rounded up links to Halloween show downloads from all across these United States. Be sure to read on after the jump to find links to downloads from Arcade Fire, Gov’t Mule, Ryan Adams and many more.

The Breakfast 10/27/2007 SBD MATRIX [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]:

Is it just us or does it seem like the unwritten ban on covering Phish songs has finally been lifted? The Breakfast celebrated Halloween by covering Lawn Boy in its entirety at their 9th annual Fonghoulish Freakout at the Higher Ground. Sure the vocals may have been a bit Bisco-esque, but The Breakfast showed incredible musicianship by nailing some of Phish’s most difficult passages with ease.

Photo and recording by Dave Pecoraro

Guitarist Tim Palmieri didn’t try to replicate Trey Anastasio’s tone. For instance, on Bathtub Gin, Palmieri played the solo using an envelope filter that made his guitar sound more like Jerry Garcia than Trey. Run Like An Antelope and Split Open and Melt featured some great interplay from all the members of the band including keyboardist Matt Oestreicher, who supposedly hadn’t heard any of Phish’s shit before starting with The Breakfast earlier this year.

Lawn Boy took up the majority of the show, but The Breakfast also played a number of their own complex compositions. The show started with a ripping jam that led into the Zappa-esque Buquebus (no Bangbus?). Other impressive originals included a heavy Food For Thought and the quirky Honey Butter. The gig seemed to gain major hippie cred points when Phish’s Mike Gordon came out wearing a mask to play bass on a bizarre cover of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive — that seemed to excite the audience more than any of the Lawn Boy covers.

Kudos to The Breakfast for allowing Dave Pecoraro to tape the show so everyone could check out their version of Lawn Boy within 48 hours of the show ending. In less than a week his recording has been downloaded by over 4,000 people who have now been exposed to the power of a good Breakfast. Read on for more…

Ween 10/20/2007 DAUD [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]:

Photo by Brainsomuddy

Ween hit all different segments of its vast repertoire when the band turned Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom browner than a UPS truck. New Hope’s finest brought down the house with crowd pleasers like Piss Up A Rope, Voodoo Lady and Take Me Away. They also drew some fake tears with faux love songs Learnin’ to Love and Woman and Man. Ween even cracked up the audience with Mister Would You Please Help Me Pony, The HIV Song and Waving My Dick In The Wind. Lately Ween shows have been hitting all of the key emotions, and we dig it.

Gene and Dean filled the set with a number of new songs from their latest album, La Cucharacha, for a crowd that seemed more excited for the new songs than the older material. Ween’s die-hard audience is one of the few in the biz that actually encourages their favorite band to play as much new shit as possible. Fiesta, a song best described as Spanish Flea’s retarded cousin, opened the set with a bang.

The odd Spirit Walker sounds even quirkier in concert, and was one of the few throw away tunes of the evening. Woman and Man as well as The Party both featured nice little jams and were clearly the best new tunes of the evening. Ween will be supporting La Cucharacha for the next year, so be sure to catch them when they turn your town brown.

Give Us The Money Lebowski 10/27/2007 SBD [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]:

Photo by Jeremy Gordon

Give Us The Money Lebowski ran into quite a jam on Saturday night when they found out that the venue they were scheduled to play at had been closed due to a fire across the street. Thanks to some quick thinking and action by their management, the boys were able to quickly find a new spot to host their post-PGroove extravaganza. GUTML played one set, heavy on the killer and light on the filler, and it showed off the best these guys have to offer.

And speaking of Phish covers, we think GUTML version of Harry Hood with special guest Brock Butler of PGroove is just as good as anything The Breakfast played at Higher Ground. At first the jam starts off with guitarists Butler and Nick Setteducato building up a nice head of steam before they take the improvisation in a completely different direction that reeked of heavy funk. You’d think these guys had played together for years the way they communicated so well on stage.

GUTML only has one original, but their version of Anybody Got Papers was the centerpiece of the show and makes me hopeful the band will continue to add more zany originals to their sets. Lebowski returns to the stage at the end of the month for a couple of gigs in Pennsylvania.

And here’s a list of great Halloween shows for you to devour:

Let us know if you’ve found any other Halloween shows below…