Halloween revelry: BoomBox headlines 'Darkside of The Mystic,' featuring music, costume contest and more

Celebrate Halloween early with electronic rock duo, BoomBox.

The duo, made up of brothers Zion Rock Godchaux and Kinsman MacKay, will bring its heavy organic grooves and soulful beats to Santa Fe for the “Darkside of the Mystic” event on Friday, Oct. 25, at High Desert Hideaway at The Mystic Santa Fe.

The evening will kick off with a set by Truewill at 7 p.m., followed by BoomBox at 8 p.m. An age 21 and older after-party will start at 10 p.m. with guest DJs keeping the party going.

A costume contest will be part of the event, with attendees able to compete for a chance to win a staycation at The Mystic Santa Fe. Prizes will be awarded for first, second and third place with judging beginning at 10 p.m. and the winners announced at 10:30 p.m. at the after-party.

BoomBox has not played Santa Fe before and is excited for the opportunity.

“We’re a dance band, basically, we try to mix, sequence rhythms with drum machines and computers and stuff like that,” Godchaux said. “We mix that in with live guitar and vocals. A lot of them are like traditional songs, kind of big kick drums and kind of like a late night sound, mixed with guitar and vocals, and it’s all really supposed to provide an environment for people to want to just party or just feel liberated and get down as hard as they want without feeling self-conscious at all.”

Godchaux said the concept for BoomBox came to him while he was living in San Francisco. He initially was not a fan of electronic music and considered it a form of elevator music until he attended a rave in Oakland, California, with a friend in the early ’90s.

“It was definitely not elevator music, and it was something else,” he explained. “It was like very mystical and deep. It was just hearing the kick drum and the bass through those huge speakers that were made to really accentuate kick and bass. And how it connected everybody to this pulse, I just thought there was something really special about it.”

He soon realized the potential of mixing “human imperfectness” with the perfect sequence of computer based music.

“That’s kind of where it started was with that vision right there and wanting to blend it,” Godchaux said. “See if you can take like this electronic music and maybe turn it into electronic rock ’n’ roll or something.”

The duo recently put out a new single, “Specialized,” that can be found on its YouTube channel.

Godchaux said inspiration for BoomBox’s music comes from everyday life situations and other music that the duo listens to.

“We listen to all kinds of music, from electronic and house to reggae and hip-hop, and we just kind of find influences through everything,” he explained. “There’s not really any specific thing that we’re trying, we just like a good melody and a good drum beat. We don’t really think quite as much in terms of specific genre per se. We grew up listening to all the old classics and everything, and so we’re definitely influenced by all that stuff, but when we sit down to write, we’re just writing what makes us feel good when we put it down.”