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For future arts and entertainment coverage in Brooklyn, please refer to our new website, BrooklynDaily.com, under the subject 24/Seven.

There, you'll find all the same great coverage, as well as our unparalleled calendar listings.

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Best bet: Dengue Fever plays Southpaw tonight

By Meredith Deliso

Southpaw is home to some Cambodian cool tonight, as Dengue Fever comes to the Park Slope venue for a rare intimate show.

The LA band is known for its eccentric lyrics and worldly mix of 1960s surf-pop and psychedelic rock that’s an homage to a bygone era of Southeast Asian rock.

The group broke out in 2008 with its third album, “Venus on Earth,” which showcased its campy humor, epitomized by that disease-referencing name, and catchy guitar riffs on “Tiger Phone Card” and “Sober Driver,” which comment on the peculiarities of modern relationships.

The band’s newest album, “Cannibal Courtship,” has a similar vibe, with its blend of surfer rock, Cambodian folk and dark humor that further explores complicated couples.

But the real treat is frontwoman Chhom Nimol. The Phnom Penh native sings in a captivating, sultry mix of English and Khmer that’s perfect for the band’s power pop ballads and haunting melodies. Sure, you can’t understand her half the time, but it still sounds great.

Dengue Fever at Southpaw [125 Fifth Ave. at Sterling Place in Park Slope, (718) 230-0236], Aug. 3 at 9 pm. Tickets $15. For info, visit spsounds.com. 

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Your Celebrate Brooklyn Pick of the Week!

By Meredith Deliso

You’ve enjoyed a whole summer of free concerts, now here’s a chance to give back — again.

Sufjan Stevens’s Aug. 2 benefit concert for Celebrate Brooklyn sold out so quickly that an Aug. 3 show has been added.

The Kensington resident is a borough favorite thanks to the strength of albums including “Michigan” and  “Illinois,” part of his “50 States Project,” a self-admitted promotional gimmick where he said he’d compose an album for each state (there’s no way his “New York” beats Lou Reed’s), and such twee song titles as “A Conjunction Of Drones Simulating The Way In Which Sufjan Stevens Has An Existential Crisis In The Great Godfrey Maze.”

Then there was his curious 2007 ode to the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway in “The BQE,” a film scored with instrumental music, commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of its Next Wave Festival.

Live, the multi-instrumentalist makes his shows an event, thanks to elaborate lighting, choreography and costumes. It’s not a bad way to bid adieu to this beloved concert season.

Sufjan Stevens at Celebrate Brooklyn at the Prospect Park band shell [Ninth Street and Prospect Park West in Park Slope, (718) 683-5600], Aug. 3 at 7 pm (Aug. 2 show sold out). Tickets $35. For info, visit www.bricartsmedia.org.

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The Weekend: 7.29-7.31

Friday, July 29

Gowanus: Calling all kings of New York — the Bell House is hosting a "Newsies" sing-along tonight. There'll be trivia and a dance off, so practice those high kicks.

Fort Greene/Williamsburg: An animation festival lands at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Automotive High School this weekend — but don't expect Bugs Bunny.

Windsor Terrace: The Bard meets Brooklynese in the newest production from Brave New World Repertory Theater — "The Merry Wives of Windsor (Terrace)." Also Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday, July 30

Coney Island: Coney's got talent in the second annual Coney Island Talent Show, right on the Boardwalk.

Red Hook: Practice your "Arg, mateys!" A pirates festival comes to the Enviromedia Mobile, a traveling nature and maritime museum.

Sunday, July 31

Prospect Heights: That's no toga party — a free production of Sophocles' "Antigone" comes to Mount Prospect Park today.

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Carnie talent show comes to Coney Island

By Alex Rush

The carnie competition is back!

The second annual Coney Island Talent Show returns to the Boardwalk on July 30, paying homage to the neighborhood’s history as the early 20th century capital for kooky entertainment.

This year’s contest will feature circus freaks and sideshow geeks (hey, it’s what the category’s called), including contortionists and celebrity impersonators; dance troupes; and a costume contest. There’s also a “creative kids” round for pre-teens and teens who think they have what it takes to be the People’s Playground’s next great circus performer.

The show’s host may be just as entertaining as the competing acts: World Famous BOB — a longtime staple on the city’s burlesque and drag queen circuit known for Marilyn Monroe-look and the ability to mix martinis with her cleavage — will lead the annual ode to Coney’s past, when sword-swallowers and men who could blow smoke through their ears were a dime a dozen.

“It’s really great to bring the entertainers together with people from the community to celebrate the tradition,” said Gin Minsky, a Bushwick-based dancer who will be competing with a less-bodily harming, 1940s-style swing routine.

The Coney Island Talent Show on the Boardwalk (between W. 10th and W. 12th streets), July 30 from 4 to 8 pm. Free. For info, visit www.thirstygirlproductions.com.

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One serious play

By Meredith Deliso

It’s no toga party when the Xoregos Performing Company does a free performance of Sophocles’s tragedy “Antigone” this month at Mount Prospect Park.

The July 31 show, at the park near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, marks the company’s first Brooklyn stop for its annual summer show, which travels to various parks and libraries.

And this is a serious play: In the Theban civil war, two brothers who died leading opposite sides of the battle for the thrown. The new king, Creon, decides to honor one, Eteocles, while refusing to honor the other, the rebel Polyneices.

The injustice drives their sister, Antigone, to defy the king, and bury Polyneices herself — even though punishment means being buried alive.

Written more than 1,500 years ago, the play has remained relevant thanks to one central question.

“The whole idea is do you follow your conscious, or do you follow man-made laws that you know are wrong?” said director Shela Xoregos. “The audience has to make up their minds.”

“Antigone” at Mount Prospect Park [enter on Eastern Parkway next to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Prospect Heights, (212) 239-8405], July 31 at 6:30 pm. Free. For info, visit www.xoregos.com.

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Spread the 'Newsies'! Sing-along tonight

By Meredith Deliso

Calling all kings of New York.

Tonight, the Bell House hosts a sing-along to “Newsies” — that early-1990s Disney musical based on an 1899 strike by the city’s newsboys (you know, the ones who yell “Extra, extra! Read all about it!”).

The film stars a fresh-faced, pre-Batman Christian Bale as the leader of a ragtag clan of poor newsies, who go on strike when publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst try to take some of their profits.

It’s pretty cheesy stuff — the boys have names like Specs and Boots, and there’s plenty of big group dance numbers and fist-raising anthems including “King of New York” and the Musketeers-esque “Seize the Day” — but that’s all part of the fun.

All musical numbers will be subtitled so you can sing along, and there’ll be themed drinks, trivia and costume contests, and a Newsies dance-off. So work on your high side kick now.

“Newsies” sing-along at the Bell House [149 Seventh St. between Second and Third avenues in Gowanus, (718) 643-6510], July 29 at 8 pm. $8. For info, visit www.thebellhouseny.com.

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