Oingo Boingo Music Group

Is there life after Oingo Boingo? Well, yes. But if you take Boingo front man Danny Elfman even half seriously about how he'll follow the group's final-ever concert on Halloween at the Universal Amphitheatre, it'll be life behind bars: "I plan to finish the last show, have a stiff drink and go on a tri-state killing spree," the mischievous redhead said, sitting upstairs at a Burbank rehearsal studio, as band mates Steve Bartek, John Avila and Johnny (Vatos) Hernandez roll their eyes.

Oingo Boingo's leader, Danny Elfman, began cataloguing the various ways in which he has approached his favorite songwriting theme: death. "Living with, dancing with, running from, toying with, tricking, etc.," he said during a recent phone interview, ticking off all the subheadings under capital 'D' in the Oingo Boingo songbook.

At Irvine Meadows, things don't go bump in the night around Halloween. They go boing. For the fifth straight year, Oingo Boingo will be the Halloween season entertainment at the amphitheater, playing a three-night stand this weekend. The Los Angeles rock band is eminently qualified to preside over a Halloween party. For one thing, leader Danny Elfman has a predilection for writing songs about the spooky, the paranormal and the just-plain-dead.

Just as Halloween is a time for kids to indulge their fantasies and become Presidents, Transformer robots and such, so it is that the reasonably successful members of Oingo Boingo get to become megastars for a brief span each witching season.

It was indeed a Dead Man's Party on the lawn at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater on Saturday night. Without the restriction of seats, the hordes of almost-fanatical Oingo Boingo fans acted out their darker impulses, slam-dancing to "Only a Lad," spraying each other with florescent paint throughout the night and screaming wildly each time the spotlights panned across the lawn. "This is the place to be. It's crazy," said Nick Strickland, 20, a.k.a. the Bum From Hell, of Canyon Lake.

Oingo Boingo's legion of fans in the Southland will have to make new plans for Halloween this year: For the first time in seven years, the catchy, peppy Los Angeles band won't be throwing a "Dead Man's Party" at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. Bandleader Danny Elfman said Thursday that he decided before last October's three-night stand in Irvine that Boingo wouldn't be doing a repeat Halloween performance this year.

Is there life after Oingo Boingo? Well, yes. But if you take Boingo front man Danny Elfman even half seriously about how he'll follow the group's final-ever concert on Halloween at the Universal Amphitheatre, it'll be life behind bars: "I plan to finish the last show, have a stiff drink and go on a tri-state killing spree," the mischievous redhead said, sitting upstairs at a Burbank rehearsal studio, as band mates Steve Bartek, John Avila and Johnny (Vatos) Hernandez roll their eyes.

Oingo Boingo's legion of fans in the Southland will have to make new plans for Halloween this year: For the first time in seven years, the catchy, peppy Los Angeles band won't be throwing a "Dead Man's Party" at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. Bandleader Danny Elfman said Thursday that he decided before last October's three-night stand in Irvine that Boingo wouldn't be doing a repeat Halloween performance this year.

It was indeed a Dead Man's Party on the lawn at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater on Saturday night. Without the restriction of seats, the hordes of almost-fanatical Oingo Boingo fans acted out their darker impulses, slam-dancing to "Only a Lad," spraying each other with florescent paint throughout the night and screaming wildly each time the spotlights panned across the lawn. "This is the place to be. It's crazy," said Nick Strickland, 20, a.k.a. the Bum From Hell, of Canyon Lake.

Oingo Boingo's leader, Danny Elfman, began cataloguing the various ways in which he has approached his favorite songwriting theme: death. "Living with, dancing with, running from, toying with, tricking, etc.," he said during a recent phone interview, ticking off all the subheadings under capital 'D' in the Oingo Boingo songbook.

At Irvine Meadows, things don't go bump in the night around Halloween. They go boing. For the fifth straight year, Oingo Boingo will be the Halloween season entertainment at the amphitheater, playing a three-night stand this weekend. The Los Angeles rock band is eminently qualified to preside over a Halloween party. For one thing, leader Danny Elfman has a predilection for writing songs about the spooky, the paranormal and the just-plain-dead.

Just as Halloween is a time for kids to indulge their fantasies and become Presidents, Transformer robots and such, so it is that the reasonably successful members of Oingo Boingo get to become megastars for a brief span each witching season.