The first tip-off, to these ears, that we were going to love Stranger Things was the soundtrack to the opening credits. In the space of just a few dark synth notes that split the difference between John Carpenter’s horror soundtrack and freaked-out ‘70s Eurosynth prog like Goblin and Vangelis (don’t laugh, that early Vangelis shit is tiiiiight), you were told: Here be dark wonders. The opening didn’t lie, and now, I’m writing this to you from the Stranger Things theme park in Orlando, FL, stealing wifi at The Upside Down Café while I nosh on their singular Ectoplasmic Eggo.

Well, okay — we’ll have to wait for that last part. Kinda like how the Austin, TX band Survive (pictured) formed in 2009, made a pact that they’d perfect that nasty-bass D&D dark wizard sound, and then had to wait until this year before any of us realized that this was just the thing we’d been wanting. That’s Survive who scored Stranger Things, and who I’m told are scoring the next season, too, and who, will you look at this, are playing Making Time’s Halloween party this year.

The Making Time Halloween parties have a long tradition of really going for it — some of you will recall when they had Simian Mobile Disco in Fishtown years ago, after which I argue the neighborhood was never the same (for worse, oh, much for worse) — but I will venture to say that Survive will be the scariest band they’ve ever had.

I will also venture to say that there will be in excess of 200 women dressed as “Eleven.” Maybe that theme park won’t be such a wait, after all.