“We were Sleepies, and now we’re someone else,” the guitarist of punk band Sleepies said before stepping back from his microphone and throwing on a ratty blonde hairpiece. Sleepies then launched into a version of “Celebrity Skin,” their first of three consecutive covers of ‘90s alt-rock band Hole, and as Tom’s dress fell down to his waist, it actually became increasingly difficult to tell him apart from Hole’s lead singer Courtney Love (see this video as a reference point: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4bfro_hole-celebrity-skin-live-topless-wo_music).

In that aspect, and many others, NYU’s Halloween concert at Le Poisson Rouge, “A Refined Evening of Hardcore,” was a huge success. The concert featured seven acts, and all except for headliners Pissed Jeans spent part of their time on stage masquerading as other bands, incorporating covers into their sets. Lucky concertgoers saw Brooklyn garage rockers Awesome Color putting their own profane spin on Sly and the Family Stone, as well as Ex-Wife covering their Jersey brethren Saves the Day. In addition, My Mind and Drunkdriver each took on 1980s hardcore bands in Void and Christian Death respectively.

Though each of the bands generally kept the spirit of the evening by playing their songs in costume, no one quite took it as far as Pissed Jeans, who made up for their lack of covers with a surplus of spectacle. Most of the other bands played dress-up; singer Matt Korvette got into character. Wearing one of the loudest dresses ever conceived by man, dark red lipstick, and an incredible blonde wig, the frontman, mild-mannered and polite during load-in, transformed before our very eyes. He bellowed at an audience member to “bring [him] an appletini.” He scolded me for letting loose a wolf-whistle when he first got on stage. Best of all, he flirted with the crowd while slapping fans away that were trying to see under his dress. Korvette certainly wasn’t giving it up that easily.

His band wasn’t to be outdone. Bassist Randy Huth patrolled the stage in full Tigger costume, while the group’s drummer, Matt McGuinness, showed off a purple dress of his own (this one with sequins!) while the band sludged through their songs. To say the least, their performance was one to watch, a more than fitting end to the evening.

While early promises of blood and vomit never came to fruition, NYPD were called in at one point after, according to NYU Local, “an unruly non-NYU show-goer ‘had an altercation’ with a female bartender.” For an evening that got increasingly rowdy as it progressed, this wasn’t a total surprise. In fact, it wouldn’t have felt right without some police activity.

All in all, “A Refined Evening of Hardcore” strayed pretty far from the refined end of things, and frankly, with the notable exception of Matt Korvette, all of the guys who wore dresses were pretty far from ladylike. The hundreds who came out to LPR that evening would hardly have had it any other way.