Empty Space Orchestra is heading out on tour this week, hitting up locations that up till now had been untrodden territory for the local instrumental space rockers.

I ran into guitarist Shane Thomas last night at Parrilla Grill, where Thomas, a faithful employee of the wrap and burrito purveyor, constructed my Red Headed Stepchild (chicken, Frank's hot sauce, Gorgonzola cheese, spinach = awesome) and chatted a bit about the tour. Thomas said the band is most stoked for Wednesday night's Portland show playing the middle slot in a bill headlined by Water and Bodies (check out my profile of the band from last year) and Symmetry Symmetry at the awesome Doug Fir Lounge.

From there, the band heads north for a sh0w in Tacoma on Thursday night at the New Frontier Lounge and then a performance at Seattle's Q Cafe on Friday.  Empty Space then head south -- way the hell south -- to play Ashland on Saturday and Arcata, Cali. on Monday night.

Empty Space becomes just one of several acts from Central Oregon, who've hit the road in the past year, joining the likes of Larry and His Flask, Person People, Moon Mountain Ramblers and several others.

Things were relatively quiet out on the town on Halloween night, as it seems many a ghost, goblin and Michael Jacksons were still at home, fixated by the severe throttling the Ducks were giving USC.

But then things picked up by 9 or so and it seemed that the McMenamins Old St. Francis School campus was the epicenter of the Halloween tomfoolery. This seems to be the case with most major party holidays. They should change their name to McMenamins Old St. Francis School and Hall of Seasonal Celebration. Or not.

Here's some video of Empty Space Orchestra getting totally spooky in the McMenamins theater, complete with a freaky video projection serving as the backdrop.

With Halloween falling on a weekend this year, it seemed that people had extra time to devote to their costumes. In no particular order of awesomeness, here's a rundown of some of my favorite costumes from Saturday night.

Swine Flu: I saw four different renditions of this topical costume, three of which used a pig snout, and one that featured an entire pig costume.

Bleacher Preacher: Complete with one-piece Spandex suit, wig and John 3:16 sign.

Mustaches: Halloween is a great excuse to grow a 'stache, as evidenced by a slew of cowboys, cops and other characters who incorporated a hairy upper lip into their costumes.

Pair of Ninjas: I assume these folks weren't real ninjas, but due to their rather convincing garb, I walked on the other side of the street, just in case.

Sexy _______: Just about any noun works here. Cop, nurse, jar of mustard.

Telethuggy: A more, um, urban take on the popular childrens' characters.

First off, this should be a post with some video from last night's Ruins of Ooah/Basin and Range show at the Summit, but I'll be damned if the dang battery on my video camera was dead when I got there. Lame.

But the show was STQS (Strong To Quite Strong - pronounced "Sticks") on all fronts with Eugene's Basin and Range funkifying the second level of the Summit before locally rooted didjeridu-led band Ruins of Ooah took to the stage.  At one point, didj player Tyler Spencer donned a gas-mask apparatus (or something like that, all I know is it sounded awesome--like robots humping) into which he beatboxed awesomely.

The show was also featured some local music notables, including Eric Tollefson and three quarters of Empty Space Orchestra, whose guitarist, Shane Thomas, has earlier in the day passed along this video of his band. Check it out, it's pretty STSQ. Man, I hope that phrase catches on.

I’m still wrapping my head around exactly what happened up at the corner of 14th Street and Galveston Avenue this weekend. If anything, the 2009 edition of the Bend Roots Revival proved that whatever negative labels the dismal economy has placed on our town do not apply to our music scene.

All four days of Bend Roots went not only smoothly, but also produced one quality act after another—from bluegrass to roots rock to instrumental chaos to straight up rock and roll, festival organizer Mark Ransom sure knows how to pick them.

In the parking lot on Saturday afternoon, Ransom (whose own band, The Mostest played a killer jam-a-thon on Friday night) stopped by to chat a bit a bit about how things were going. With a little fatigue in his eyes yet a smile on his face, Ransom was complimentary about all the acts that had played and also seemed proud of the way the community not only came out in big numbers, but had also been respectful to the neighborhood. Also, it didn’t hurt that the weather was ridiculously warm for the last week of September and that much of the festival was broadcast live on KPOV 106.7FM.

Here’s some video from Bend Roots…

Rising Tide, started things out right on Thursday night with a full set of Grateful Dead covers that even non-Dead Heads could get a kick out of.

Leif James and the Struggle played what had to have been one of their best sets  to date on Friday night, getting the PBR swilling crowd up and moving with his soulful roots rock.

Living up to their local hype, Tyler Spencer and his trio, Ruins of Ooah proved just how funky a didgeridoo can be when placed in the right hands.

Stealing the show, as is their wont, Empty Space Orchestra showed us why we’re going to miss them when they get super hugely famous. Here they are doing their set-ending drum-a-thon.

Check back to the front page of tsweekly.com for our mini-documentary from the weekend.