Hot Mulligan Spooks Montreal’s Sad Demons Away on Halloween

On Halloween night, Michigan emo-punk band Hot Mulligan came back to Montreal after more than 10 years, promoting their 2025 studio album The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still.

I gotta admit, this show has been on my calendar for a while now. Being a sucker for good emo-punk music and somehow having never attended a concert on Halloween, I was so sure that the night was gonna be a treat. As I made my way through Ste-Catherine Street, arguably the busiest street in Montreal, which gets even busier on All Hallows’ Eve, you could spot people from a distance below the MTELUS marquee smoking outside. They were dressed up as clowns, demon-nuns, the inescapable Heath Ledger Joker, and Elphaba from Wicked, to name a few. All excited to finally see the self-proclaimed “#1 Hot New Band” in Montreal.

The stacked night included 4 bands, just to make sure we all had our fill of emo music before Halloween night hit the midnight mark.

Starting off was Wakelee from Brooklyn, New York, whose sound was way more melodic emo-punk than Hot Mulligan. Their style leaned a bit closer to Mayday Parade, dipping a bit more into pop than the rest of the lineup.

Next up, we were greeted by the iconic narrated intro of The Powerpuff Girls to reveal three dudes dressed as Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. The band Riley! was doing a full recreation of the episode where three guys dress up as the heroes to trick everyone into thinking they were bad, but I digress, my non-millennial readers. The trio was, to me, the discovery of the night. Their sound was way closer in tone to the headliners: raspy vocals and heavy melodic riffs with a bit of self-deprecation in the lyrics. Like Hot Mulligan, there’s a complexity in the topics they sing about (still being quite emo), but you get the impression that they don’t take themselves too seriously in the best way. Check out their track “777.”

Next up, we had One Step Closer, who was the heaviest band on the bill. Their sound leaned more into the 2000s metalcore style. I would assume it’s no mistake that the name of the band references Linkin Park; the parallels and influence are pretty clear while listening to them live. Adding to the Halloween ridiculousness, shout out to the guitar player who played pretty much the whole set wearing a giant inflatable Cartman from South Park. How the hell was he even seeing what he was playing? Yeah, I can’t help you. It was equal parts goofy and absolutely impressive.

After running the gamut of different emo variations and band members dressed as ’90s cartoons, it was finally time for the main act.

“It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights. It’s time to meet The Muppets on the… Hot Mulligan show tonight?”

Backlights revealed the silhouette of Brandon Blakeley sitting at the drum kit dressed as Animal, followed by the rest of the crew dressed as Miss Piggy, Kermit, and my all-time favorite Muppet: Beaker. After all of them walked out, frontman Tades Sanville came in, and in true emo fashion, he broke the charm of a fully coordinated band costume by wearing what I believe (and I’ve been scratching my brain ever since about it) was a pimp costume. Come on Tades, get with the program, man!

He gets a pass for starting out the set with the amazing crowd favorite “BCKYRD.” Just like the lyrics to the song, his costume “didn’t get better, just different.”

It has been a minute since I was in the pit of a punk show, not since Warped Tour back in the summer, and somehow I forgot those are the best shows. Everyone is friendly, screaming the lyrics that have probably gotten them through tough times at the top of their lungs, and taking care of the sea of crowd-surfers as Sanville and company kept ripping through every riff and lyric with the same energy from start to finish. They followed up in quick succession with “Big Load” and “OG Blue Sky” before taking a second to address the crowd:

“Montreal, it’s been more than 10 years since we’ve been here. And let me tell you, you guys were probably not there.”

Chris Freeman followed up with, “Yeah. Nobody was there. I guess people forgot to tell you.” A pretty stark difference from the packed pit they were greeted with on Saturday. The set continued with a pretty sweet mix from their latest and previous albums, dropping “Gans Media Retro Games” from their 2023 album Why Would I Watch, followed by “Smells Like Fudge Axe in Here” from their latest. Halfway through the set, Sanville finally addressed the elephant in the room: “Fuck guys! You could’ve told me we were all dressing as Muppets. I look so stupid right now, what the hell?!”

The crowd jokingly responded with loud boos.

“I know guys, I’m sorry.”

That led to the loudest “TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF!” chant from the crowd. The singer, half-laughing, just yelled: “Fuck you guys! This is my only shield on stage. What is wrong with you?!” before continuing with a Halloween night for the books.

“I hope you like some songs with dudes’ names now!” Sanville said before playing all their songs with guys’ names in the title: “Bon Jonah,” “Mark Hoppus,” “John Cena,” and “Eric Sparrow.” Just when they were about to walk offstage for the encore, he said, “If that’s ok with you, we’re not gonna do the whole encore dance and we’ll just keep playing. I need to take this shit off and put on a hoodie and pants ASAP.”

The crowd responded once again with: “TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF!”

“They did the same shit to me in France! What the hell is wrong with you French-speaking dudes?!” he responded before playing “Analogue Fade.”

Next to last on the set was arguably their biggest hit to date, “Equip Sunglasses,” which I thought was the loudest the crowd was gonna get. But the real peak didn’t come until the last song: “How Do You Know It’s Not Armadillo Shells?” Truly emo stuff to end your set with a power ballad and arguably the saddest song in your repertoire. They thanked the Montreal crowd on the last chord, promised they would be back soon, and disappeared through the heavy fog on stage.

I gotta admit, I love Halloween, but I’m usually more of an “order takeout, buy a bunch of snacks, and watch horror movies all night” kind of guy. This is the first time I’ve gone out on Halloween since I moved to Canada 10 years ago, but Hot Mulligan has me questioning my life choices.

If only we had an amazing emo show in the city every year for Halloween. One can only hope.