It's Friday night and rather than spending the first work-free hours of your weekend sloonin' on the couch and staining your fingers orange with Cheetos, head to New World Brewery to enjoy a bill of distinctively entertaining local bands. Poetry n' Lotion is a fun-loving, laid-back quintet that performs jazzed-up instrumentals with a hard rockin' edge, their sound marked by the expert plucking of lead mandolinist Jim Page. Nervous Turkey offers a lively take on bluesy bar rock with a lead singer who has a gruff, Tom Waits sort of voice and an engaging persona. Worldwide Zoo's jazzy funkiness is flavored with slinky rhythm-and-blues and punctuated by occasional bursts of trumpet and trombone. Ophelia produces psychedelic folk rock, its one and only member — dulcimer-wielding Roger Lanfranchi — delivering lyrics like "You said hallucinating's got nothing on the real thing … And that's when I knew I'd fallen out of love with LSD" in a falsetto chirrup. In between sets, The Crate Brothers spin hip-hop-infused electronica. Fri., March 23, 9 p.m., 1313 Eighth Ave. E., Ybor City, $6 (21 and up only), 813-248-4969.
This article appears in Mar 21-27, 2007.