Voltaire
Doc’s Music Hall, 215 S. Walnut St., Muncie
Saturday, Oct. 13, 10 p.m., $7 in advance, $10 at the door

Voltaire! It’s hard to go through a gothic event without hearing at least one of his songs, whether it be the highly parodic “The Vampire Club,” the slightly tongue-in-cheek “When You’re Evil” or some of his lesser-known but no less high-quality serious work, all of which will be on display when he returns to Muncie for a show at Doc’s Music Hall Oct. 13.

A modern-day Renaissance man, Voltaire’s many talents include animation (he did some of the freaky-creepy MTV promos you might recall from the late 1980s), comic book writing, authoring books like “What is Goth?” and “Paint It Black,” working in animation (and contributing the occasional song to “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy”) and sometimes serving as spokesperson for the goth scene when the guys from Fox News want an easy punching bag and have no idea what they’re getting into. (Check out the video on his MySpace page — www.myspace.com/voltairenyc — to see Fox anchors get “pwned,” which is always entertaining in and of itself.)

A consummate showman, even if it’s just him and a guitar, Voltaire has a knack for handling a crowd. Last time he was in Muncie, he carried the concert out into the parking lot for another 45 minutes after the whole show was kicked out of the concert hall at the Ball State Student Center for running too late. He played out in the dead of winter, perched atop a heating vent, and oddly enough, that made it all the more memorable. Given that this show will be at Doc’s, a somewhat more liberal venue than Ball State when it comes to closing times, odds are we won’t be seeing an outdoor concert, but hey, this is Voltaire; you never know what to expect.