Problem Stick will again play M&J Tavern on Halloween.

If you want to go out and enjoy some live music on Halloween night, you’ll have plenty of options, including the great funk-rock band Dopapod at Volcanic Theatre Pub and Steely Dead at the Domino Room, playing a fusion of — you guessed it — Steely Dan and the Grateful Dead.

But if I were going out (which I’m not), here’s where I’d be: The venerable M&J Tavern to see two fine local bands, Sweet Demon and Problem Stick.

Sweet Demon’s music is dark, occasionally funky alt-rock made by guitarist and vocalist Brooke Stanley, bassist Jen Stanley and drummer Lindsey Elias. I don’t know much more about their music, but I do think Sweet Demon is a great name for a band.

Problem Stick, on the other hand, has been playing around Central Oregon for a long time, and their sound is well-documented. In this publication alone, I have described them as “rootsy pop nuggets run through a lawnmower and glued back together, but in the wrong way” and “Tom Waits leading a psych-country band through drunken covers of a horror movie soundtrack” and “The Beatles, the Velvet Underground, George Jones and the Ramones all tossed into a big ol’ blender, drenched in noise (and) crude humor … and set to PUREE for eternity.”

If you asked me to name my favorite band in Central Oregon, I would tell you that I love them all equally as though they are my own children. And also that Problem Stick is playing M&J on Halloween.

Problem Stick, with Sweet Demon: 9 p.m., free, M&J Tavern, 102 NW Greenwood Ave., Bend, 541-389-1410.