Jackson Free Press

This year's Halloween Bash at Martin's Restaurant & Bar is bound to have its fair share of revelers in strange get-ups. However, one collective of costumed partiers will seem particularly out of place—almost as if they aren't from this world at all. They also happen to be the evening's entertainment, Japanese action-comic punk band Peelander-Z.

"We explain in our show, we say we are not Japanese, we are not American, we are not human beings; we came from another planet," Peelander-Yellow, the group's guitarist and vocalist, says. "We play music like 10 percent, and 90 percent is we do the human bowling, we do the limbo dance, we give our equipment to the audience, and we are free and jumping. Boom, boom, boom!"

So what sinister benefit could this band of aliens reap from bringing good times to Jackson show-goers? They feed on human smiles, he says. Of course, people need to smile, and aliens need to eat, so it's a win-win.

Yellow says the band isn't about playing music but rather playing with the audience. He compares a Peelander-Z show to the feel of old-school wrestling—it's about entertaining spectators on all sides, not just sticking to a stage and focusing their attention forward. The amount of participation also determines just how crazy the show can get, he says.

"If people cannot understand, we explain very slowly," he says. "And we're going to go inside your brain and knock on the door. 'Hey, wake up right now. Your mother is not here. Nobody will complain to you. You can dance because I can dance, and that means we can dance. Let's dance.'"

While the members of Peelander-Z don't take themselves too seriously, they do take a serious approach to touring, having played more than 1,500 shows over the band's 18 years on the road. Yellow formed the group in New York City in 1998, first as a three-piece band with original members Peelander-Red and Peelander-Blue before the two musicians left to pursue other interests outside of music. Red's decision to leave the band became the subject of the 2015 documentary "Mad Tiger," which offered a look at the band members' lives outside their wild performances. It's a hardship that Peelander-Z has to go through just like any other band, Yellow says.

"Everybody has a job, everybody has school, everybody has relationships, so I think we can say everybody has kind of the same situation," he says. "... The first time (a member leaves) is very sad, but we have to get it and understand and sometimes forget. Sometimes we try, and sometimes we don't try, but I have to walk my way. So I can say, I never give up, and please don't give up on walking your way. Even if nobody believes in you, you have to believe in you. I try to believe me. That's my project. That's why I was born."

Even with drastic lineup changes, the style of the band is always intact, he says. For this tour, the group consists of Yellow on electric guitar, Peelander-Pink and Peelander-Purple both playing bass guitars, and a new Peelander-Green on drums.

The band is an amoeba, Yellow says. It has always changed just as its audiences has, but different doesn't mean bad.

Peelander-Z performs at 9 p.m., Monday, Oct. 31, for the Halloween Bash at Martin's Restaurant & Bar (214 S. State St., 601-354-9712). For more information, visit peelander-z.com.