Arif Ansari

Nothing says Halloween like horror-themed garage punk. Who among us hasn’t dreamed of dressing their three-year-old up as Glenn Danzig and forcing them to pick a fight with another three-year-old dressed as Jerry Only? It’s a lucky thing that Calgary has Forbidden Dimension, then, to help us ring in All Hallow’s Eve at The Stetson. No, they won’t be forcing infants to resolve longstanding punk feuds through adorable fisticuffs, but they will be pulverizing audiences with the most terror-iffic tunes that Jackson Phibes can muster (I promise I’ll keep the Cryptkeeper-calibre puns to a minimum from here on out). Conniving Cadavers, another Calgary punk outfit that’s looking to pick up Forbidden Dimension’s malevolent torch, will also be there. They’re celebrating the split album they’re releasing with The Rigormorticians — expect a spectacle.

The ghost of alt-rock past will be making its way through Calgary on Halloween as well. Winnipeg’s The Watchmen will be at the Gateway. Even if you don’t remember them from their mid-’90s single “Stereo,” The Watchmen are well worth revisiting — front man Daniel Greaves does an a capella version of Tom Waits’s “The Heart of Saturday Night” that can bring the house down.

There are probably many things that say Halloween better than laid-back, folksy indie-rock, but if you’re feeling contrarian, you may still want to check out Slow Down, Molasses at The Palomino on Friday. You can even pretend they’re spooky, if you like. After all, they are channelling the (admittedly still living) spirits of Neil Young, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Low, and if you had to pick some spectres to spend your time with, you could do considerably worse. Also along for the ride: The Smokin’ 45s, and there’s a good chance that they’re werewolves.

If you’d rather wait till Halloween is over to get your dose of country and folk, you can always check out Randy Hutchings at The Ship and Anchor on Saturday, November 1. Hutchings is a big fan of alt-country staples from The Jayhawks to Gram Parsons, and his new CD, The Days Before, wears those influences well. Plus, if you can’t see him on Saturday, his band, Waxpoets, will be at Broken City on November 13.