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Christofer Drew, a self-described misfit, says he was "picked on" and bullied before dropping out of high school when he was 16.
"I didn't do the usual things," Drew says of growing up in Joplin, Mo., during a telephone interview. "I was like a little goth kid. I was just different than everybody else. If you didn't play football, you didn't fit in."
Drew, who says he started writing songs on the guitar when he was 13, found refuge in his music and on his MySpace page. As well as posting some of his songs — tuneful miniatures marked by bright melodies, spare instrumentation and Drew's high, clear tenor — under the name Never Shout Never, he also wrote a blog and answered would-be fans who found his page and wanted to communicate with him.
"I'm socially awkward," Drew says. "I'm not good in public. On MySpace, you can spend an hour shaping a response to somebody."
After dropping out of school, he hopped in a car and started two years of almost nonstop touring, initially playing in church and fire halls rented by fans who had found him on MySpace and then graduating to clubs.
Drew, who says he's a fan of musicians like the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Beck and the Beach Boys, has released EPs, including "Yippee" in 2008 and "The Summer EP" earlier this year, and made an appearance on MTV's "TRL."
Not unexpectedly, he caught the attention of the music industry and was signed by Sire Records, a division of Warner Bros. His debut album — produced by Butch Walker, who also has worked with Katy Perry, Fall Out Boy and Pink — is expected to be released sometime next year. He says another EP consisting of a couple of songs from the album will be released this year.
Drew, who says his parents' divorce and a breakup with his girlfriend has given his music some darker shadings, wonders if he made a mistake by signing with Sire.
"There was a lot of pressure from a lot of people," he says. "Now I kind of regret it, quite honestly.
"Honestly, I just want to make music and chill."
Drew will perform here with his six-piece band, the Shout. Also on the bill are Meg & Dia, Now, Now Every Children and Carter Hulsey.
Jyrki 69, the lead singer for the 69 Eyes, also known as the Helsinki Vampires, is ecstatic to be performing in the United States on Halloween night.
"We don't have Halloween in Finland," says Jyrki in heavily accented English during a telephone interview. "We don't have Halloween in the northern part of Europe. We don't know actually what it is. But talking about American pop culture, I'm jealous of that season for you guys because that's something I've been curious about all my life.
"For the first time in my life, for the first time in the history of the 69 Eyes, I'm in the States doing Halloween. I'm having the best days of my life. This is the season I've dreamt about. This is the season I was born into."
Jyrki says he picked up the vampire imagery when he was living in New York City in the 1980s and people began to tell him he looked like one of the undead. When he returned to Finland, he decided to use it when he formed the band, which released its first album in 1992.
"I represent 'The Lost Boys' and Christopher Lee and Bela Lugosi side of things," he says. "On the other hand, 'Twilight' is like light soap-opera romanticism."
Huge stars in Finland, the 69 Eyes haven't been able to duplicate that success here. That could change with its new album, "Back in Blood," released last month.
Produced by Matt Hyde, who also has twiddled the knobs for Slayer and Monster Magnet, "Back in Blood," which features songs with titles like 'Dead Girls Are Easy" and "Kiss Me Undead," is a melodic romp through the metal genre.
The album is grounded by Jyrki's deep, deadened vocals but the album soars on the strength of a fluid twin-guitar attack that is unexpectedly graceful.
"We were able to record the whole album in the States with American producer," Jyrki says. "That's a big deal for a poor boy like me from Helsinki, Finland. And we have a chance to tour in the homeland of Elvis Presley."
Also on the Halloween bill are Dommin, the Becoming, 12 After and Caris Lupus.
Chandler Kinchla, lead guitarist for Blues Traveler, says business is good.
"I guess we're a recession band," Kinchla says during a telephone interview. "For some reason, our ticket sales are going better than they have in years, which is surprising because the business is way off."
The band, led by harmonica player and singer John Popper, rolls into town for a Thursday night show. Fans can expect the band, which formed in 1988, to deliver a diverse evening of improvisational music marked by much risk-taking.
Though there's now a ton of bands who can make that same claim, Blues Traveler was something of a rarity in rock music circles back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
"Back then, there was the Grateful Dead, which was a big influence on all of us," Kinchla says. "There were bands like us and Phish and Widespread Panic, and we were about the only bands doing it — kind of following in that vein.
"One thing that's really interesting about the jam-band scene is it is so diverse as far as the music. There are a lot of different-sounding bands that can fit in that category. But what it comes down to is bands that can play live and use a lot of improvisation, with the music always evolving and changing."
Blues Traveler seemed like it would enjoy a solid, under-the-radar career until it released its fourth album, which contained the single "Runaround," sort of a ripoff of Bruce Springsteen's "Rosalita."
The song exploded, went into heavy rotation on MTV and Blues Traveler was suddenly one of the biggest bands in the land.
It was something of a shock and the band was never able to repeat that Top 40 success, but Kinchla's not complaining.
"It was a ball getting all that commercial success," he says, "and it really helped give us a career. All of a sudden, you have a lot of name recognition and people know you and, shoot, it bought my house."
Jack Dillman will open for Blues Traveler at the Chameleon.
Never Shout Never
Oct. 30 at 7. $15
The 69 Eyes
Sat. 7 p.m. $14
Blues Traveler, Thurs. 7 p.m. $25
Chameleon Club, 223 N. Water St.
393-7133. www.chameleonclub.net.
