"> E-Mail This Article to a Friend Tis the season The Strokes in Lowell on Halloween, Jam’n 94.5’s "Monster Ball," clowns, and more

Portisheadless

Without Beth Gibbons, Portishead might still have invented trip-hop, but it’s unlikely that anyone would’ve cared. The doleful chanteuse whose blue-note sighs almost single-handedly lowered techno’s blood pressure is back with a solo album that finds her free of electronica — no drum machines, not much in the way of reverby guitar — but not of her sadness. Out of Season (Sanctuary), due October 7, finds her in full possession of her majestic and understated melancholy. The disc is credited to Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man; the latter is the nom-de-mope of none other than Talk Talk’s Paul Webb, who frames her wrist-slashing, Lady Day–like warble as the voice of a faded chanteuse, a cabaret widow, and a bossa nova fatale. They’ll play the Roxy, 279 Tremont Street in the Theater District, on October 13. Tickets are $18.50; call (617) 931-2000.

Costume ball

What will the Strokes be doing this Halloween? Everyone who guessed "same as always: they’ll be preening Manhattan dilettantes dressed up as distressed garage-rockers" is hereby banished to a year of listening to Lou Reed’s Take No Prisoners. As it happens, the Strokes’ new album, Room on Fire (RCA), will hit shelves on October 21, and 10 days later they’ll celebrate with a Halloween-night gig at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, with Kings of Leon — Southern pentecostals dressed up as the Strokes! Come as you are, then. Tickets go on sale this Saturday at 10 a.m.; call (617) 931-2000.

Monster squad

The Strokes aren’t the only band monster-mashing in town this year. The theme for Jam’n 94.5’s "Monster Ball"? Superstar protégés! P Diddy’s squad Da Band — members last spotted walking to Brooklyn for cheesecake and beating one another senseless — have closed out their Making the Band season on MTV and have an album due September 30; on October 28, they’ll try to prove they’re more than just the black O-Town when they arrive at the FleetCenter as part of a bill that also includes Slim Shady accomplice Obie Trice, whose debut, Cheers (Interscope), hit shelves last Tuesday and who may very well be the next 50 Cent. Ludacris, Lil Jon, and Chingy will also be right thurr. Tickets are $55 to $94; call (617) 931-2000.

Send in the clowns

Times Square may have cleaned up its act, but the indie-vaudeville troupe known as the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus — imagine a cross between Jim Rose’s crew and the Big Apple’s one-ring shenanigans — will soon be doing its part to bring back the spirit of lascivious hokum to that location. But before the Bindlestiff hits Times Square, it’ll be trying out its latest show, "High Heels and Red Noses," October 24 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street in Brookline. Expect a delirious mix of sideshow spectacles, pratfall, slapstick, sword inhaling, contortion, burlesque, and rock and roll, including their can’t-miss "Homeland Security song-and-dance routine." Admission is $15, $12 for clowns in make-up; call (877) BINDLES, or visit www.bindlestiff.org.