Tools of the trade!
Do The Kidz still go out the night before Halloween and wreak mild havoc for Mischief Night? Remember that? Kids would rub eggs on car windows, put toilet paper on neighbors’ bushes, and so forth. I assume Mischief Night was “celebrated” all across America. (Now that I think of it, I have no idea what our ex-US Townspeople do for Halloween, if anything.)
I was a goody-two shoes as a kid and only went out for Mischief Night one time. I took my little brother, who was way more badass than I’d ever be, even when he was 7, down the street from us, where I went to catch my bus to school each morning. First we broke eggs on some guy’s car window and rubbed them across the glass. That was fun. Then I had the bright idea of placing an empty beer bottle on the side of the road right in the middle of the road, where an unsuspecting car was likely to run over it. Then I had the even brighter idea of convincing my brother that we should sit back from the road, beside a shrub, and wait for the sparks to fly, so to speak. Within a minute I got my wish. A car ran smack over the bottle, which shattered. I’d never felt so mischievous in my life! I thought I could get used to this way of living.
Then, what I did not wish for or ever stop to consider happened: the driver slammed on the breaks, pulled over, and quickly spotted my brother and I giggling in the bushes. We tried to run, but he got us. He gave us a wicked tongue lashing and threatened to tell our Mom. Luckily his tire did not suffer a flat, and he took mercy on us. That was the first and last time I would celebrate Mischief Night.
Anyhow, I was wondering what a Rock ‘n Roll Mischief Night might look like. What mischief could rock nerds like ourselves create if we decided to hit our local clubs and record stores and music stores and friends’ music collections? Based on my history with this holiday, I would be wise to sit this one out, but tell me what I may be missing. Feel free, too, to share your personal stories of Mischief Night, which I hope you’ve moved past celebrating.
The best prank to pull off at Music Saves (my favorite record store), would be to replace all that Indie Rock goodness with a bunch of Classic Rock. Those big, 180 Gram reissues where every record is thrity bucks or more. Then sit back and laugh and laugh while people ask where the latest Dum Dum Girls or Deer Tick records are. I can see it now.
“We don’t seem to have those. Wanna spend forty bucks on Boston’s third album? The one with the songs that sound just like the first album?”
I like it! I bet 2000 Boy reveled in Mischief Night.
2000 Boy didn’t need a special night. He was a rotten kid and knew that words written with Dial soap on a sidewalk took months to finally go away, gasoline made words that showed up in grass oh-so-slowly and they stayed there all summer, Sweet Tarts on a cement driveway with the aid of the victims sprinkler would stain a driveway in rainbow colors for a month and toilet paper in the trees was best on a night with a light rain.
And the double scare was one of the funniest things in the world, not to mention throwing snowballs at cars. One time we had a guy stop and he said he was gonna “kick your asses,” but he had no idea there were about ten of us, and we pelted him from every angle with our snowball arsenals until he got back in his car and drove away.
2000 Man however, thinks those were rotten things to do, but to this day loves the complex practical joke and will pull one off if he thinks he can get away with it!
What’s the rock equivalent of the world’s most horrible prank, the “upper decker”?
I’d never heard of Mischief Night before. Apparently it’s a British thing, and I guess it’s only practiced in the more Anglocentric parts of the country.
Really? I’ve always assumed that was an All-American Badass activity. It’s always good to learn there are still some regional differences in America.