Rock 'n' Roll Monster Bash co-producer keeps busy
To get any kind of quality time with Shane Morton, you either have to go see him perform or perform with him.
Rocker, tattoo/visual artist, impresario, collector — Atlanta's crown prince of lowbrow pop culture is the personification of a body in motion.
"It's been the demise of many a relationship for me," Morton tells a visitor to his home in Scottdale one afternoon, in between projects. The day before he'd completed hosting, performing and doing most of the set design for his latest creation, the Silver Scream Spook Show at the Plaza Theater. Today he's helping an old friend with an art project, but then he must rehearse with his latest punk rock band, the Luchagors, for a tour that will follow the Rock 'n' Roll Monster Bash, which Morton helps produce at the Starlight Six Drive-In. In between lies a freelance art gig with Trojan condoms in New York.
"It's hard to hang with me when I'm making 15 paintings, and I'm flying out of town to work on a haunted house, and I'm on tour with my band, and I'm doing makeup for a movie," Morton says. "The only time I actually can take a vacation is when I'm on tour, and that ain't no vacation. But it's my chance to get in a lot of reading."
Fittingly, he dates his lead singer, Amy Dumas — a.k.a. Lita, the retired champion of World Wrestling Entertainment fame.
"She's included in everything we do together," Morton says of Dumas, who also hosts the show "Punkrockalypse" on Sunday evenings on 96.1 FM. "We're both about educating people about the good stuff."
Morton took over programming for Monster Bash in 2007 after helping coordinate the event with owners of Netherworld, the mega-successful haunted house. He collaborates with his old friend Jim Stacy, the Starlight Six manager, with whom he's worked on everything from tattooing and haunted houses to bizarro rock projects like the Star Wars tribute band Grand Moff Tarkin.
Last year, Morton's second behind the helm, Monster Bash sold out for the first time. It didn't hurt to have the tie-in with the Silver Scream Spook Show, his collaboration with the vaudeville-inspired troupe Blast-Off Burlesque that provides an outlet for Morton's passion for vintage horror and sci-fi classics shown at the Plaza. (Co-owner Jonathan Rej likes to call Morton "the Robert Osborne of horror movies.")
The Monster Bash comes at a time when things are clicking for Morton. His lowbrow, monster-inspired art has sold well. The Luchagors draw large crowds on their tours, as does the 3-year-old Spook Show back home.
- When/where: Noon-midnight June 7, Starlight Six Drive-In, 200 Moreland Ave.
- Tickets: $15
- More info: 404-627-5786 or www.starlightdrivein.com
- Music: Bigfoot, the Pits, Crank County DareDevils, Courtesy Murder, the Spook Show All-Stars
- Movies: "Tales from the Crypt," "The Howling"
- Also features: Miss Monster Bash 2009 contest, hotrods from Dead Ends Hearse Club, and performances by the Silver Scream Spook Show and Blast-Off Burlesque
