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Mushroomhead returns home to Cleveland for the band's annual Halloween show at the Agora. The fun starts at 6:30 p.m, Saturday.

(Mushroomhead)

PREVIEW

Mushroomhead Halloween Show



When:

6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Where:

, 5000 Euclid Ave.

Openers:

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Tickets:

$30 in advance, $35 day of show, at the Peabody’s or Agora box office, online at

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Twenty years ago this week -- Oct. 23, to be exact -- a bunch of Cleveland musicians got together just to let off steam, do a little experimenting and have a little selfish fun.

Today, Mushroomhead is bigger than ever, but the guys are still letting off a little steam, experimenting and having some fun.

Steve "Skinny'' Felton, the band's drummer and one of only three members who've been with the group from Day One (the others are singer Jeffrey Hatrick, a.k.a Jeffrey nothing, and keyboardist Schmotz, a.k.a. Tom Schmitz), said that was always the goal.

"When we first started, it wasn't anything other than a side project for us,'' said Felton, calling from a tour stop in Florida to preview the band's annual Halloween show Saturday night at the Agora.

“It was a different release for our music and a new way for our wacky ideas to get across to come across,’’ said Felton, who sees that as a reason the band has survived so long, despite the lineup changes.

“That’s where the longevity comes in,’’ he said. “Ultimately, we weren’t made to be the best band in the world or to get a record deal. It was just us experimenting with sounds and textures and songs that we actually liked and that were quirky and interesting.

“It was an honest effort,’’ Felton said. “It wasn’t contrived. I mean, yeah, we’ve got masks and costumes, but it was more for us. We weren’t setting out to be rock stars.’’

Like the mayhem guy (perhaps a guest performer someday?) says in the insurance commercial, accidents happen. The band has sold more than 2 million units worldwide, has seven previous albums before this new, untitled on, made 15 videos and toured the globe.

And the irony is that the sound of this new record probably is most like the sound on that first record, 1995’s “Mushroomhead,’’ Felton said.

“[The sound] has definitely matured on the writing to some degree,’’ he said, “but in this new album, which won’t come out till mid-March, it’s back to Square One.’’

This should be an exceptional CD, not matter what. All three men who’ve shared lead singer chores during the lifetime of Mushroomhead – Hatrick, Jason “JMann’’ Popson and Waylon Reavis – are on the album.

And it’s not a question of each singer doing a verse. It’s very organic, with all three singers – including Popson, whose return to the group after a nine-year hiatus is official now -- participating.

“Having a couple of new members, having JMann back so we have all three singers, that was really interesting just in the moods it conveyed by having three guys,’’ Felton said.

The new album still has to be mastered, the song order determined – the band wrote 21 tunes and culled it to 14 – and even the first single has yet to be chosen. Plus Felton said the group still needs to get the new masks that will be part of it.

Thus, fans won’t hear any of the new stuff in Saturday’s show, he said. But because it’s the band’s annual hometown Halloween bash – that’s right, hometown; they all still live in the Cleveland area – this one should be pretty special. The larger size of the Agora stage, the fact that it is a theater stage, with trap doors and such, will allow for a more grandiose show.

“We’ve added more and more to this stage show. I have a whole storage facility of Agora props,’’ Felton said, laughing.

Plus, it IS coming just three days after the band turns 20. Wonder if there’s a birthday cake in those props?