Slip into a cray costume and hit the high seas with some artists, theater nerds, and just plain nerds.
Thunder Gumbo Homecoming Cruise
Sat., Oct. 1, 9pm, The Queen of Hearts, Pier 36, 299 South Street; tickets $20-$30.
Thunder Gumbo is a Brooklyn-based art collective that throws some of the city’s wildest underground theme parties. If you were at Burning Man earlier this month or if you’ve been to a BangOn! party, you’ve probably seen or even partied atop their mutant art car, a onetime military troop transformer. This time they’re hopping aboard a far more conventional vehicle– yes, a party boat– in what should make for a pretty badass Bushwick Open Studios afterparty. Don’t be scared off by the “homecoming” theme, complete with activities like “cheerleading tryouts,” “sex ed,” “detention,” “class photo booth,” and the crowning of a King and Queen. The invite welcomes all, whether you’re an “art car jock,” “dusty goth,” “dust-free prep,” “DPW dweeb,” or “Sparklepony stoner.” DJs include Joro Boro of Gogol Bordello, Dirtyfinger, and more, and installations and visuals are promised. There will also be a “special autumnal harvest hunters ritual” (??) by Orien Mcneill, an organizer of another ship-o-fools affair, the Battle For Mau Mau Island.
Gothic Vampire Cruise on the Hudson
Sun, Oct. 2, 9pm to 11:30pm at Clipper City, Slip 2, Battery Park; tickets $35-$150.
A lot of people who throw booze cruises are real opportunists, charging crazy covers for some cheesy blues band. On this vampire cruise, there’ll be some actual bloodsuckers aboard. The premise of the “interactive theater experience” is that Countess Margarethe Orlok is throwing a party aboard the ship that her father, Count Orlok, brought back to Transylvania. If the name Orlok doesn’t ring a bell, well, her dad was Nosferatu (cue creepy pipe organ), so expect shenanigans galore. Those will be orchestrated by Tarot reader Lady DeWinter, burlesque dancer Mata Hari, and Professor Abraham Van Helsing, who happens to be the doctor and vampire hunter from Dracula. The organizers, “dark theater” company Faunesk Productions and immersive theater troupe Skull Buggery, are promising an “epic plot between good and evil” as well as DJs and the dark electro band The Sedona Effect. Will lead singer Kai Irina Hahn bring the giant snake she likes to perform with? Only one way to find out.
Cosplay Cruise
Oct. 7, Circle Line Pier 83 at 42nd Street and the West Side Highway; boarding begins at 8pm for 9pm departure; tickets $25.
We’ve told you about this one before, but let this serve as a reminder that this costume cruise is leaving from midtown during Comic Con. To get all of the bronies to clop just a handful of blocks uptown from the Javits Center and all the Trekkies to, well, make the trek, top cosplayers Kirsten Hughey, LeeAnna Vamp, Soni Aralynn, and Brit Bliss will be circulating during the boat’s three-hour tour, and Brooklyn’s own Robert Lux will be DJing. Here’s hoping he goes as Steve Aoki, complete with birthday cake and smoke-machine robot arms.