Music: Best Bets

Every year around Halloween, wild, crazed sounds and bone-chilling rhythms creep out from beyond the old oak trees of New Orleans’ City Park. It’s the Voodoo Music Experience, and this year is heavy on the … well, heavy. Nine Inch Nails and Pearl Jam own the top spots and will surely shake loose some spirits with heart-pounding rock. OK, it actually all starts the day after Halloween, but there’s no reason you can’t show up that Friday still donning your costume from the night before.

Also on the bill this year: The Cure, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kid Rock, The Gaslight Anthem, local favorites such as Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Dr. John, Royal Teeth, CC Adcock and the Lafayette Marquis, Quintron & Miss Pussycat and The Breton Sound, and—for those who just wanna dance—Calvin Harris and Bassnectar will be performing as well.

And it all takes place Nov. 1-3 at the new Festival Grounds at City Park, which opened last winter as a permanent location for big events such as Voodoo Fest. For more information and a full schedule of performances and stages, go to worshipthemusic.com.

OCT. 2: Aimee Mann won’t clean your house, a la Portlandia, but she will play a great intimate set with Ted Leo at the Manship Theatre. manshiptheatre.org

OCT. 3: Just guessing, but Roberto Fonseca will probably make the ladies swoon with his jazz piano stylings at the Manship Theatre.

OCT. 5: Arctic Monkeys offer up some very British neo-punk at the Varsity Theatre. varsitytheatre.com

OCT. 10: The big, world-music energy of the brass ensemble Red Baraat might be too big to be contained inside Chelsea’s Café, but it’ll be worth it. chelseascafe.com

OCT. 11: Dawes brings California roots rock to the Manship Theatre with the help of Jason Isbell. That same night, Better Than Ezra and Sister Hazel play their memorable tunes at L’Auberge Casino & Hotel. lbatonrouge.com

OCT. 22: Nellie McKay and Turtle Island Quartet are sure to be a unique musical experience at the Manship Theatre.

OCT. 27: Grammy Award-winning Terrance Simien & The Zydeco Experience will play for the crowd at Sunday in the Park at North Boulevard’s Town Square.

OCT. 30: Quintron and Miss Pussycat provide some eclectic pre-Halloween dance music at Mud and Water.

IN NEW ORLEANS: Sigur Rós (Oct. 3) and FUN. (Oct. 5) play at Champions Square outside the Superdome as part of a fall concert series.

EARLY NEXT MONTH: Hemingbough Blues Festival brings Gregg Wright, Luther Kent, Chris LeBlanc, Elvin Killerbee, “Boogie” Long and more to St. Francisville Nov. 3. brbluessociety.com