“Happy Halloween, everybody!” That’s the late, great Frank Zappa, joyfully addressing the rabid crowd in attendance at one of his most infamous, recurring Halloween shows in New York. After a few years of its lying dormant, Zappa/UMe has just resumed this special All Hallows Eve FZ reissue series with—to use Zappa’s own words—The Big One: Halloween 78.
Released just a week ago on October 24, 2025, Halloween 78 comes in two full-on, treat-not-trick configurations: 1) a 5CD box set replete with the entire four-hour show, along with a number of holiday-centric costume accoutrements (more on those in a flash), and 2) a somewhat abbreviated 180g 2LP edition (subtitled Highlights: Live at the Palladium, New York) that’s available in either Candy Corn or Blood Splatter multi-color vinyl. (Spoiler alert: I absolutely love watching the Candy Corn wax spinning on my turntable.)
If, like myself, you’re a Zappa freak/completist, you’ll want ’em all. Each option is available directly from FZ’s official webstore, Zappa.com, right here. (The Zappa Braintrust tells me certain select online retailers are also carrying Halloween 78, but I prefer getting mine directly from the Zappa Store myself.) The limited-edition 5CD costume box carries an admittedly hefty SRP of $179.98, while the gatefold-packaged Blood Splatter 2LP edition goes for $37.99, and the Candy Corn option (with pop-out paper mask, gatefold packaging, and a booklet with rare photos and bespoke art) is $45.98. A 1CD highlights disc option—featuring 15 select performances—goes for $13.98. (There is also a Digital Deluxe version offering all the tracks found in the 5CD edition, along with a digital booklet.)
Produced by Ahmet Zappa and longtime Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, Halloween 78 resurrects the well-loved Zappa costume box sets after five years of the series lying in wait underground. Halloween 78 marks the fourth entry in a series that began in 2017 with Halloween 77 (which included a Frank Zappa costume), followed by 2019’s Halloween 73 (which contained what can only be called “FRANKenZAPPA”), and 2020’s Halloween 81 (starring Count Frankula).
Want a taste to satisfy your spooky tooth? Check out Vaultmeister Travers walking us through the various Halloween boxes and their respective merits, via the official FZ YouTube clip below. (And yep, I have ’em all.)
I love that the Zappa Braintrust brought back this big Halloween box set series, along with the included bonus costume goodies. This time around, we get a ’70s-inspired FZ devil mask, and a pitchfork with a UV light, all seen below. (I should also point out that the pitchfork’s UV light can be used to illuminate certain “secrets” within the packaging itself.) Full confession: I actually donned the FZ devil mask at the outset of a Zoom interview I had conducted earlier in the afternoon, much to the, er, brief amusement of my interviewee.
Having the full four-hour show in quite higher fidelity is, frankly, a godsend, as the multi-disc, double-clamshell-housed bootleg CD set I have of this show pales in comparison. Instead, the real source material—30ips Dolby-encoded Ampex 456 2in 24-track analog tape, as remixed by Craig Parker Adams and mastered by Jon Polito—makes listening to Halloween 78 a much less ghostly affair. I also love the texture and look of the leatherette-bound grimoire book that all 5CDs are housed in—a book that features numerous concert photos by Lynn Goldsmith, liners and technical notes by Travers, and bespoke artwork by Fantoons, the team who also designed the mask.
That all said, the gothic-inspired font that’s being used for the sleeve notes, while thematically dead-on perfect, can be a bit hard to read at times when they’re sprawled across entire pages.
As for the vinyl versions, maestro mastering engineer Chris Bellman of Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood cut the new lacquers for this vinyl pressing, which was pressed at Precision (part of GZ) in Ontario. A full-size liner-notes booklet and cutout FZ mask are also included, and each LP comes in a plastic-lined inner sleeve.
Like I said earlier, I just love watching the Candy Corn LPs a-spinning—and I also ordered the Blood Splatter edition earlier in the day to complete the vinyl circle, as it were. I only experienced minimal surface noise as I dropped the needle onto LP1, Side 1—not a totally unexpected result with oft-finicky tri-color vinyl. Thankfully, during some of the extended FZ spoken-word/audience participation sequences, I detected no instances of clicks, pop, or even the types of whirs and whooshes that sometime betray the integrity of color-vinyl playback. Thus, I have no problem recommending the purchase of the Candy Corn version to you—though I do wish they’d have found a way to do a limited-edition uber-deluxe vinyl box set to match the 5CD collection track-for-track.
Finally, I do have to share my favorite line of the entire show, which occurs in “Dancin’ Fool” (LP1, Side 1, Track 4): “You must be a Libra.” (#IYKYK, in other words.)
More stats and background info now via the official press release, along with much MM-style additive commentary throughout. As per Travers and Co., Zappa experimented with adding extended jams and older material on this particular Halloween 1978 date. He exclaimed “This is it! This is the BIG ONE!” (all caps intended!) while addressing the crowd in his opening monologue that commences both CD1 and LP1. There were no Halloween shows in 1979—and during 1980, Zappa unfortunately got sick and was unable to get through the scheduled holiday shows, leading to cancellations. By 1981, although a pair of shows had been videotaped with a live broadcast on the then-newly established MTV, the attitude and approach seemed to have a different feel, with more of a constructed atmosphere and less audience participation. To many observers, the Halloween spectacle of 1978 seemed to be the pinnacle of an era.
The all-hallowed Halloween 78 concert performance was filled with normal Zappa show favorites, extended instrumental improvisations, special added attractions, and career classics. During sections of the concert, Zappa was calling tunes out one at a time, sans a predetermined setlist. This night’s particularly fiery performance of “Peaches En Regalia” (CD3, Track 2)—a true Zappa classic—was called off-the-cuff, with the band responding beautifully.
Amidst all of the mayhem at hand was the indisputable musicianship. The FZ band had been on tour since August 1978, and by the time the Halloween 78 run came around, they were primed and ready to rise to the challenge. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta was new, having replaced Terry Bozzio, and in turn brought another level of insanity to the group dynamic. Arthur Barrow was also newly employed on bass—but, interestingly, Zappa had also brought back Patrick O’Hearn to supply fretless bass for a small segment of the 1978 tour. Barrow and O’Hearn’s different styles complemented each other, with each player taking over during certain tunes or sections, in addition to sometimes playing in harmony with each other.
The two-headed-monster keyboard lineup of Peter Wolf and Tommy Mars were still intact from the year before. Denny Walley, returning from the Bongo Fury days, provided his own signature slide-guitar playing along with his impeccable humor, and also picked up the singing slack left by the departure of singer Ike Willis. In his second year, Ed Mann provided the all-important layer of percussion.
L. Shankar, the amazing violinist, was a special guest throughout the run. His inclusion was a gleaming highlight, weaving in and out of improvisatory events, accompanying Zappa on guitar. Zappa prioritized Shankar at various times throughout the multi-night engagement, most notably on the massive Halloween show closer, “Black Napkins / The Deathless Horsie” (Disc 3, Track 14; and LP2, Side 4, Track 1). Zappa even gave him the nickname “The Bionic Parrot,” in tribute to Shankar’s chosen costume for the shows.
Another special event was when Zappa brought Warren Cuccurullo to the stage. He and Warren had established a friendship over the touring years after meeting in 1976 (thanks to Zappa’s sound engineer, Davy Moire). By 1978, Warren was a part of Zappa’s inner circle—and, after Zappa’s fancy had been tickled with a wild tale about a chance meeting in NYC with a character named “Ms. X,” Zappa insisted Warren appear to recite the story on Halloween night. Actress and comedian Laraine Newman also came out onstage. They had just recently worked together on Saturday Night Live just 10 days prior, with Zappa famously participating in a “Conehead” skit.
“Ancient Armaments” (CD 1, Track 2; and LP1, Side 1, Track 2) was the opening gambit of the epic four-hour Halloween 1978 concert extravaganza. During this time, FZ would start the shows with an improvised guitar solo, and every night was different. FZ liked this performance so much that he released an edited version of the song as the B-side to his “I Don’t Want To Get Drafted” single in 1980. (And yep, I’ve got that 45 too!) Here on Halloween 78, we have the complete unedited version of “Ancient Armaments,” newly mixed and mastered, in all its spontaneous glory.
Zappa worked the band during soundcheck that afternoon, adding extended jams and older material into the set, squeezing in as much as they could to make the evening as special as possible. And the ensuing repertoire did not disappoint, with the main setlist chock full of Zappa standards. Songs like “Suicide Chump” (CD2, Track 7; and LP1, Side 2, Track 2), “Easy Meat” (CD1, Track 5; and LP1, Side 1, Track 5), “Keep It Greasy” (CD1, Track 7), and “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing” (CD1, Track 8) had yet to be included on any album release. Additional highlights include the mega-jam “Thirteen” (CD1, Track 11; a significant and re-occurring solo vamp throughout the entire Halloween run) and an early version of “Packard Goose” (CD3, Track 5), prior to its iconic recording for FZ’s 1979 three-act opus, Joe’s Garage.
I’ll let Vaultmeister Travers deliver the final bon mots about Halloween 78, as per the liner notes: “Frank’s relationship with his New York audience, a very special collection of what he called ‘New York’s Finest Crazy Persons,’ is the stuff of legend. 1978 seemed the apex for the holiday event. FZ exclaimed ‘This is it! This is the BIG ONE’ as he addressed the crowd in his opening monologue on Halloween night, and it surely was.”
More FZ-related coverage will be coming shortly, including my exclusive interviews with Ahmet Zappa and Joe Travers discussing the endless merits of hearing FZ music in Dolby Atmos. And, with that—happy Zappaween Weekend, everyone!!
