It's only rock 'n' roll

In the summer, New Orleans turns downright tropical. Surrounded by the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico, the city is scorched by the pulsing midday sun.

The elements scour the landscape, punishing it with fierce electrical storms and hailstones that can knock a grown man cold in the street. Swarms of termites cloud the sky. These events all conspire to remind you that Nature has a stranglehold here.

Two days of nonstop rain pounding the old colonial tin roof structures in the French Quarter, the water cascading off the balconies like small waterfalls, makes it easy to imagine what the city was like two centuries ago, when the Americans finally claimed it for good.

Much of the city's regular business slows to mildew speed during the dog days, but not the music. From Bourbon Street to Bywater the joint is jumping, night after magic night.

Even on Monday nights there's great music afoot. That's when the city's hottest funk band, Popa Grows Funk, holds court at the Maple Leaf, a shotgun-house bar with a back yard stuffed with lush, fast-growing vegetation. Popa Grows Funk is led by keyboardist and vocalist John Gros, one of the Crescent City's fast-rising musical stars. Drummer Russell Batiste plays with PGF when he doesn't have a scheduling conflict with the funky Meters or Vida Blue, the trio he shares with bassist Oteil Burbridge of the Allman Brothers and Aquarium Rescue Unit, and Phish keyboardist Page McConnell. Guitarist June Yamagishi, also of the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians band, handles most of the lead work along with the bristling tenor saxophonist Jason Mingledorff. On any given night this group is capable of playing the best show you've ever heard.

As it turned out, some friends of Gros were celebrating a birthday last week and arranged a wild party at the local rock palace The Howlin' Wolf. They wanted Popa Grows Funk to play, but like so many other New Orleans bands the members of PGF are all in other groups as well. Though his regular group wasn't available, Gros was able to obtain crack replacements, which he dubbed Popas' Uptown Funk Machine. On the drums was Raymond Weber from Snooks Eaglin's band. Two sidekicks who date back to their days with Johnnie Taylor and Z.Z. Hill, bassist Tony Hall and guitarist Vasti Johnson, added coherence to a pickup group that was rounded out by Mingledorff and, of course, Gros.

Gros and Mingledorff showed their simpatico on a gorgeous opening statement that evolved into "Dimples" and the band proceeded to burn out a lengthy set that covered a wide range of New Orleans funk classics as well as Gros' own developing anthem, "The Junker."

Hall proved to be an effective foil to Gros fronting the band, singing an energetic version of "Standing On Shaky Ground." Johnson was joined by Art Neville's son Ian Neville on guitar for a spirited rendition of Bob Marley's reggae standard "Stir It Up."

Two blocks from the New Orleans Fairgrounds, one of America's oldest racetracks, is a small bar and restaurant called Liuza's that offers up some of the finest fare on the American racing circuit. The barbecue shrimp poor-boy sandwich there is an international legend, and on race days the bar is packed with a colorful collection of backstretch workers, gamblers and locals.

But on Thursday nights Liuza's transforms into a musician's paradise. Over the course of the evening dozens of guitarists, fiddlers, dobro and banjo players, accordionists and rhythm players flock to Liuza's to participate in a folk music circle run by the duo Jeff and Vida. Jeff Burke, an outstanding mandolin player, acts as the genial referee for this free-for-all as the musicians take turns trying out this or that traditional piece and the occasional original. Burke and Vida Wakeman provide a strong foundation for the circle with their beautifully matched harmony vocals. The duo has released several strong records.

But wait, there's more! On Sunday nights at the Shim Sham Club on Toulouse Street, the Pop Tarts do a hilarious satirical musical skewering contemporary pop. Every Friday night at Le Bon Temps Roulet on Magazine Street D J Davis of All That holds court at 7 p.m. while one of the club's staff shucks free oysters while supplies last. On Saturday afternoons at the Louisiana Music Factory, New Orleans' best record store, live bands play on a small stage in the middle of the store while patrons browse the album racks. The local Brewery, Abita, chips in with a tub of free beer or discount tickets for brews across the street at Old Tunes Saloon.

Even when the weather is nasty, New Orleans will put a smile on your face.