Going Out

Music

Tonight Only Music Theatre Music Theatre Art Phoenix: Faux Frenchman Jacques Le Cont's side-project, Zoot Woman, might recently have been fted for their retro Eighties pop sound, but it was these genuine Parisian hipsters who wore their Hall and Oates singles on their sleeves first. Played with a tad less irony than the Zoot Woman posse, Phoenix specialise in airy sunshine pop that's expertly tailored in all the right places. Bubble perms, tasselled shoes and stonewashed denim might not be the current hot couture, but Phoenix - bless 'em - wear it well. Mean Fiddler, WC2, doors 7pm, 9.50, 020 7434 9592.

Raging Speedhorn: "Sniff Glue, Worship Satan" goes Raging Speedhorn's T-Shirt slogan, though it doubtless doubles as a mantra to live by for these Northamptonshire masters of metallic menace. Spearheading the British counterattack against the Yank Nu-Metal uprising, Raging Speedhorn come armed with soporific Black Sabbath- esque riffage, and a neat line in nihilistic, no-hoper, teenage angst. They'll never trouble the airwaves with their antisocial thrash, but for a pure, uncut rock thrill, Raging Speedhorn take some beating. Scala, N1, doors 7.30pm, 10, 020 7833 2022.

Theatre

Merrily We Roll Along: For the financially challenged among you, this celebrated theatre is offering the chance to pay what you like for a pair of tickets for tonight's performance of Stephen Sondheim's bittersweet look at showbiz and the loss of idealism.

The back-to-front musical follows three friends from cynical, middle-aged success to aspiring youth: every step into the past is tinged with retrospective irony.

It was a famous flop when it first opened in 1980, but the Donmar has revealed Merrily to be one of Sondheim's finest chamber scores, and tonight you can enjoy it for as little as a penny.

Donmar Warehouse, WC2, 7.30pm, 020 7369 1732.

From Tonight

Music

Nikki Yeoh and Cleveland Watkiss: The experimental Serious Sampler series continues to marry unlikely musical suitors in live performance.

Tonight top jazz vocalist and MC Watkiss will be wooing the hugely talented pianist Yeoh.

Former Jazz Warrior Watkiss is equally at home scatting jazz lines or riding a drum-and-bass riff with collaborators Goldie and Talvin Singh, while Yeoh can turn her feather-like tickles into raging funk grooves with the flick of a digit. Musical adventure awaits at the Spitz, E1, doors 8pm, 7.50, 020 7420 1000.

Theatre

Dog: Canine capers and doggerel as the brilliant, bespectacled poet John Hegley (right) pays homage to man's best friend with drawings, poems, songs, drama and animation. Wry, clever, silly and always acutely observed, Hegley gives our four-legged pals their due: absolutely barking fun for children and adults alike. Lyric Theatre, W6, 7.30pm, 10-15, 020 8741 2311.

Meat and Two Veg: Dusting down traditional theatre, Cartoon de Salvo are devoted to telling splendid stories in foolish ways. Their latest tall tale is derived from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and features a live skiffle band sailing the high seas, a curiously manly girl in her long-lost brother's clothes and an abundance of sponge cake.

A healthy cup of post-war comic romance, tiffin and strong tea will be served in this energetic reworking of a classic tale of love and muddle. BAC, SW11, 8.30pm, 8.75, 020 7223 2223.

From Tomorrow

The Last Nudes: It may come as a surprise that David Smith, the US sculptor known largely for his modernist, chunky, steel constructions, who died in 1965, once dabbled in fluid sketchy paintings of female nudes.

Actually, the paintings aren't so far removed from the sculptures; when you look past the dribbles that were made with enamel paint loaded into an ear-syringe, his female forms are still angular and architectonic, and look ripe for industrial fabrication.

Gagosian Gallery, W1, 10am-6pm, 020 7292 8222.

Li Yuan-chia: London galleries have recently gone berserk for lesser-known artists of the Sixties.

As you might expect from an artist making that China-London lifestyle transition, Li Yuan-chia's work (right) runs the artistic gamut: from traditional abstract painting through to conceptual photography, film and installation. His name is uttered in the same breath as such cult figures as Lygia Clark (South American pioneer of touchy-feely sculpture) and David Medalla (maverick Filipino famed for his bubble machines), so he may be worth rediscovering at this exhibition, which coincides with the Chinese New Year.

Camden Arts Centre, NW3, 11am-5.30pm, 020 7435 2643.

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