If there's one characteristic common to South Florida's scattered club scene, it's the come-and-go nature of most club nights. Too often, DJs get the boot -- or simply give up -- sometimes before the ink dries on the full-color fliers they spent their rent money printing up. Bucking this unfortunate trend, Crush Thursdays at the Kalahari Lounge (4446 NE 20th Ave., Oakland Park) has persisted for about ten months now, and it's only gotten better. The party started by DJ Isaac Alexander has grown to include an outdoor scene as well. So if you've had your fill of the '80s pop (and '80s covers) spun inside the bar, then put on your Buzzcocks T-shirt and step out back for some punk, new wave, and even a little bit of soul (courtesy of Owen Von Heatseeker). The night begins at 11 p.m. Admission costs $3. Call 954-351-9371.
FRI 10
So you finally discovered Fat Joe and you've been leaning back to his number-one hit all summer. Well, Tony Sunshine's been trailing Joe for 12 years, since the chubby one started blowing up in their Bronx neighborhood. Last year, Joe invited Tony to be part of the Terror Squad -- even though there's nothing very terrifying about the smiley heartthrob. In the squad, Sunshine plays third fiddle to Joe's raps and Remy Ma's gangsta princess delivery. But he's also got his own thing going on -- a solo album on Jive Records. "It's so crazy for me right now," Sunshine says, "because I got the Terror Squad album bubbling at the same time that radio is starting to play my first single, 'Oh My God,' with P. Diddy and Dirtbag." Tony Sunshine of Terror Squad featuring Fat Joe performs tonight and Saturday at Ovation (3637 S. Federal Hwy., Boynton Beach). Tickets cost $25. Call 561-740-7076.
SAT 11
Here's pie in your eye: If you've always wanted to run away and join the circus, start collecting your gear. We suggest a heavy-duty yarn wig and a honking red bulb nose. This week, clowns throughout the Southeast converge on the Delray Beach Marriott (10 N. Ocean Blvd.) for five days of water-balloon busting at the South East Clown Association's annual convention. No doubt the several hundred attendees will arrive together in one Mini Cooper (pity the poor staff at the Marriot, having to clean up all that lemon meringue), but once they shake out the kinks, they'll stage a free parade from the Marriot to Veterans' Park beginning at 9 a.m. and also hold public competitions for best makeup and skit, balloon sculpture, and "parade-ability." Call 561-734-3521. (Gail Shepherd)
SUN 12
As organizer of Delray Beach poetry slam, Marya Summers has long had a creative vehicle with which to voice her ideas. Though she's found a comfortable niche in the local poetry scene, Summers has hungered for something more -- something musical. Her hunger grew to pangs and, finally, a thump -- one big, seemingly insatiable Hunger-Thump. With former members of Unseelie Court, the Fleetwoods, and Phoenix (to name a few), Hunger-Thump puts a solid emphasis on words and music, and they don't always occur simultaneously. The band's mix of original songs, covers, and improv jams is equal parts jazz, rock, punk, and poetry. Beat punk? Let's not go that far. Hunger-Thump feeds the crowd tonight at Dada (52 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach). The free show starts at 10 p.m. Call 561-330-3232. THU 18
MON 13
Politics is a common ingredient in the artist's palette. But politics at art museums -- the backroom decisions that affect what the audience sees -- is a different thing entirely. Add the subject of race to the discussion and it can be every bit as ugly as campaign politics. In Thomas Gibbons' play Permanent Collection, which comes tonight to the Broward Center's Amaturo Theater (201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale), a decades-old art collection becomes the focus of a controversy between a museum's recently appointed director (an African-American) and its education director (a Caucasian). The problem? How much wall space should be given to African-American art -- and how much floor space should be given to blacks who wish to view it. What, you say? This stuff doesn't happen anymore? See it and weep. Permanent Collection starts at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $40. Call 954-462-0222. THU 18
TUE 14
Now that Creed is no more (unless you consider Alter Bridge its continuation), there's a huge void to be filled in the post-grunge scene... OK, so that was a line of B.S. -- there's hardly any shortage of bands who sound like Alice in Chains' late Layne Staley come back from the grave. You can count Shinedown as one. The Jacksonville foursome claims to be an amalgam of Skynyrd, Zeppelin, Staind, and Tool, and it's right. But Shinedown also claims musical brilliance, which -- geez, how do we break it to 'em? -- that's just not the case. Fortunately, brilliance has never been a favorite of mainstream audiences, so there's still some hope. Shinedown performs with Silvertide and Caveat Emptor tonight at the Culture Room (3045 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale). Show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $14.99. Call 954-564-1074.
WED 15
Film critics' bomb alert: If a movie is written, directed, filmed, produced, starred in, cast, and catered by the same person, then pucker up, baby -- you've got a lemon. Thus, things don't bode well for The Perfect Song, South Florida filmmaker Billy Yeager's latest opus, which debuts tonight at the Carefree Theater (2000 S. Dixie Hwy., West Palm Beach). Yeager is our homegrown, obscenity-spouting version of Plan 9 creator Ed Wood; if 80 percent of success is showing up, Yeager, who also acts as his own agent, is persistently present and accounted for. Song's semi-autobiographical plot, partially filmed in Lake Worth (we wish we'd been a fly on the Lizard Bar's wall during that shoot) follows a "mad genius composer," played by -- guess who! -- in his quest to pen the perfect musical composition, presumably while being ceaselessly seduced by supermodels. We smell a future cult classic. Screening starts at 7 p.m. Call 561-833-7305. (Gail Shepherd)
