Nightlife Agenda

There is one non-Mardi Gras/political event you should know about:

According to the Red Cross, an African child dies of malaria every 30 seconds. That's more than 3,000 per day. The Arlington chapter of the Red Cross is hosting the Fight the Bite fundraiser tonight at Piola to help in the battle against this treatable disease. Drink specials and free food will be offered from 4:30 to 8, and Piola will donate 20 percent of all proceeds to the Red Cross. There's no cover, but anyone who wishes to donate money to the cause will be put into a raffle to win box seats to an upcoming Capitals game.

Okay. On to Mardi Gras.

For living out those "Girls Gone Wild" fantasies, you may as well head for the Bourbon Street Bash at McFadden's, which offers tantalizing deals like $1 Miller High Life and $1 Miller Lite drafts from 5 to close, along with $3 hurricanes and various food specials (you're going to need them). Here's a hint at the target audience: Admission is $5 if you have a student ID and $7 without one.

New Orleans's Abita Brewery was wrecked during Katrina, but it's now back producing great beers like Purple Haze. That beer is one of four featured tonight during Rustico's "keep the glass" beer happy hour, along with Troeg's Nugget Nectar, Eggenberg's Samiclaus and Victory's Donnybrook Stout. As always at these events, when you buy one of the selected beers ($5-$8), you get a logo pint glass to take home and keep. Just be aware that the glasses can run out reeeeally early, so arrive as close to 6 p.m. as you can.

The happy hour for tonight's Mardi Gras on U Street will kick off with classic Preservation Hall style horn-driven jazz, which is quite fitting for the historic Bohemian Caverns. The New Orleans/D.C. parallels continue later on as XM Radio's DJ Rik Ducci takes over the decks to drop some authentic New Orleans bounce, raw club music that is as fiercely regional and tied into the local identity as go-go is to Washington. Hit up mardigrasonu.com for the $10 advance tickets.

What gave harmonica player Malkum Gibson the blues? Certainly not his career: He's performed alongside Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal and BooZoo Chavis, and his debut album "Just the Blues" was produced by the great B.B. King. Gibson and his bluesy Mighty Juke Band are featured tonight at Madam's Organ's Mardi Gras party, along with $3 Budweiser beers and $5 Bacardi cocktails. Yes, there's a bead contest, with a $100 prize.

The Pros in the City young professionals group is hosting its non-New Orleans-themed Fat Tuesday party in the cool blue lounge at Mezze Luna, with a wide selection of $4 drink specials (wine, beer, sangria, hurricanes, martinis) from 7 to 10. There's a $10 cover in advance.

Chi-Cha Lounge is offering a more grown-up (and more expensive) Latin Mardi Gras party with $7 specialty cocktails (hurricanes, old fashioneds and key lime pie martinis) and DJs spinning '80s, electro, Top 40 remixes.

One place mixing politics and Fat Tuesday is the Ugly Mug, where the Super Fat Tuesday party offers $3 Captain Morgan hurricanes in either red or blue cups so you can show your true colors. Oh, and they'll have "plenty of beads!"

Wednesday, Feb. 6
If you're a regular at the Rockas International reggae night at Eighteenth Street Lounge, don't fret because the stars of the show are currently off touring with Thievery Corporation. It's Bob Marley's birthday, so See-I's rhythm section has recruited some heavy hitters to pay tribute to the legend. Thievery Corporation collaborator Sleepy Wonder will be fronting an all-star band consisting of members borrowed from Chuck Brown's crew and popular local outfits S.T.O.R.M. and Mojo Nya. If you've only been to ESL on a weekend, this is definitely the night to change up your routine.