Masks Off

Breaking up is hard.

So Randall Shreve and the Sideshow are going to throw a series of big parties.

After more than a half decade of shows, tours and recordings, the band will call it quits just after the first of the year. But Shreve says all of the members wanted to honor both a series of existing dates and the closeness of the band.

"We've been through too much to not be brothers," Shreve says.

The bandleader and songwriter says the members of the Sideshow never took a penny during their time on the road. Proceeds from tours and album sales covered basic costs for everyone, but nothing more. But when recent major expenses such as a van malfunction started to sway that balance, the members decided they were making decisions based on money, not music -- which meant it was time to say farewell, Shreve says. An East Coast tour was canceled, enabling the band to spend time closer to its home base of Fayetteville.

The Sideshow will play three more times in Fayetteville, Shreve says -- tonight at George's Majestic Lounge, again for Last Night Fayetteville on New Year's Eve and finally for an official farewell show early next year, probably also at George's.

Of those, tonight's show at George's will be a full representation of what the band has been doing over the past few years. A vaudeville rock act, The Sideshow has always maintained a flair for the dramatic. That's only amplified on Halloween.

"That's our holiday," Shreve says. "It's easy to communicate what we do."

Officially, the Halloween show is a masquerade ball. Featured during the event will be trapeze artists, contortionists and the like. It's a highly coordinated, high-energy show full of movement and surprises.

"It (a masquerade ball show) is a variety show. It's a rock show that never stops," Shreve says.

Unfortunately, this one will, eventually. But not before a good party or two.

-- Kevin Kinder

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