The V Side: Beer, a biker cellist and lots of ghoulish goings-on

THURSDAY / Changes abrewing: Now you can get NOLA Brewing Co’s suds in a can – and that’s a development worth celebrating. So Come Shake Yo’ Can at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Tiptitina’s. The party kicks off with slide-guitar by blues man Colin Lake, followed by Flow Tribe’s backbone cracking funk and a dance-off with Big Sam’s Funky Nation. Free NOLA Brewing koozies (while they last) and $3 cans of NOLA Blonde all weekend.

THURSDAY / The X factor: Who said women can’t do it all? The St. Bernard Project celebrates female ingenuity with Hammers to Heels, an annual fundraiser that supports its Women’s Rebuild, an initiative that puts tools in the hands of female volunteers to rebuild houses lost to Hurricane Katrina. The event takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday at Margaret Gardens, 1133 Margaret Place, with food from area restaurants, music by jazz vocalist Cindy Scott and singer Kristin Diable, and a silent auction. Tickets are $50 online at stbernardproject.org or at the door.

THURSDAY / Road scholar: He’s a cellist and biker and he’s playing a one-night event with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. You wouldn’t miss that combination, now would you? Catch Ben Sollee and what NolaVie/Live Music Blog: NOLA music writer Wesley Hodges calls his “stunning, classically-hued pop arrangements,” at 10:30 p.m. Thursday at Preservation Hall, before he takes off on his latest four-stop musical motorcycle tour. Tickets are $15.

Performance-oriented fun house at Allways Lounge

THURSDAY-MONDAY/ House of shocks: When the folks at Cripple Creek Theatre Company plan a Halloween ghost house, they don’t hold back. The group’s first ever Performance Fun House features six rooms full of suprises (no chain saws or spooky music, but “lots of creepy”), from 9 to 11:55 p.m. Thursday through Monday (Halloween night), at the Allways Lounge and Theatre, 2240 St. Claude Ave. The first 10 people get in free; a $7 donation is requested of the rest.

FRIDAY / Soul searching: It’s named for the Creole words for “from beneath the waters,” which refer to the realm of departed souls. And what better time to call these souls forth than around All Hallows Eve? Anba Dlo Halloween Fest 2011 does so, with a costume parade (line-up at 5:30 at the corner of Royal and Franklin), four music stages (with headliners ranging from Papa Grows Funk to Coco Obichaux, on stages dedicated to Big Easy voices, sacred music, and blues and burlesque), improvisational dancers, a silent auction, a costume contest (10:15 p.m.), arts and crafts, psychic readers and a midnight invocation and drum session lef by poet Moose Jackson. It all takes place starting at 6 p.m. Friday at The Healing Center., 2372 St. Claude Ave. Cost is $20.

FRIDAY / Unraveling history: Who, really, was Marie Laveau? (And isn’t Halloween weekend a goof time to wonder?) Historian and author Carolyn Morrow Long untangles fact from fiction at an hour-long talk based on her book, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess, presented by the Louisiana State Museum at The Cabildo, 701 Chartres St., at 6 p.m. Friday. Admission is free, and refreshments will be served by Friends of the Cabildo.

FRIDAY / All the rave: Check out cryptic Carnival stylings gone ghoulish at Studio 3’s annual Halloween Party, 9 p.m. Friday at the warehouse at 2610 Toulouse St. A costume party, DJs, live music and Geaux Plates highlight the action, and there’s nothing creepy about any of those. (NolaVie plans another mystical evening at the fabulously funky Studio 3 on 11.11.11 – stay tuned for that one.) Admission is $10.

SATURDAY / Punk Phunk: Of course you know it’s Voodoo Fest. But what do you do when the gates close on the live-music extravaganza at City Park? Live Music Blog: NOLA’s Wesley Hodges advises checking out Daft Phunk at 9 p.m. Saturday at One Eyed Jack’s, 615 Toulouse St. It’s Earphunk performing Daft Punk songs live. “I can’t describe it. You just have to see it for yourself,” Wesley tells us. Tickets are $12.

SATURDAY–SUNDAY / Anusara original: Anusara yoga founder John Friend concludes his 2011 Dancing with the Divine World Tour with a stop in New Orleans, where he will teach two levels of asana, each with a different heart-oriented theme. Anusara yoga, founded in 1997, is a highly respected school of hatha yoga that is expanding in this country and abroad. The Louisiana Weekend Workshop runs Saturday and Sunday at Swan River Yoga’s Mid-City Mandir, 2940 Canal Street. For schedules and prices, or to apply, click here. Pre-registration is required and spaces are limited.