There was no clear-cut path for PRIMUS when it emerged in the early-90s music melee. With its dark, bass-driven riffs, odd humor and inscrutable themes of junk food and weird science, the trio made its own way in the world, first as an underground phenomenon and later as an unlikely alt-pop success. Reunited after a three-year break, the trio brings its Tour de Fromage to the State Palace Theatre (1108 Canal St., 522-4435) at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Nostalgia reunited Primus. Bassist/frontman Les Claypool and guitarist Larry LaLonde began to ache for their old band while surveying video material for a comprehensive Primus DVD, including such bizarre theatrical gems as "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" and the stop-animation classic, "Too Many Puppies." Claypool had already rekindled his musical friendship with original drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander through his association with Claypool's side project, the Frog Brigade. By the time the DVD, Animals Should Not Act Like People, hit shelves last fall, Primus had recorded a new five-track EP to go with it and booked a tour behind its release. Now in its second leg, Tour de Fromage ticket sales are unparalleled in Primus history. But three years ago, Claypool was burned out on Primus, his instrument, and music in general. It was a visit to New Orleans during Jazz Fest 2000 -- when he played the legendary Oysterhead show with guitarist Trey Anastasio of Phish and drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police -- that jumpstarted his creativity. Putting Primus on hiatus, Claypool's association with Phish made his Frog Brigade a shoo-in for jam band-scene success. He also tried several other side projects, including a recent recording with Tool drummer Danny Carey and visionary guitarist Adrian Belew. Now back with Primus at least temporarily, Claypool claims the break was crucial. "Playing with different people has let me see that, while the parameters were already pretty wide with Primus, they don't need to be there at all," Claypool says. At Tour de Fromage shows, Primus plays two full sets -- the first a mix of familiar and obscure tracks from the band's canon, and the second a revved-up run-through of the 1991 album, Sailing the Seas of Cheese. Not purely surreal, the title is a metaphor for Primus' break into the major-label music world. "Suddenly, we were going to be marketed alongside Guns 'n' Roses, Bon Jovi, all of these bands that we considered cheesy," Claypool says. "So it was sink or swim." Tickets $30. -- Cristina Diettinger

Louisiana Sportsmen's Show Wednesday-Sunday, March 3-7 Louisiana Superdome, Sugar Bowl Drive, 464-7363 Unique geography and a passion for the outdoors are what establish our state as the "Sportsman's Paradise." Catering to that local lifestyle for the past 25 years, the Louisiana Sportsmen's Show has grown from its more humble origins in Municipal Auditorium to a sprawling showcase of all things fishing, hunting and boating in the Superdome. With more than 400 booths filled with outdoors-related products and services, the event is mainly sales oriented. But this anniversary edition will feature the weigh-in for the Inshore Fishing Association's Louisiana Red Fish Tournament, the DockDogs Big Air Competition, with retriever dogs competing, top sportsmen hosting seminars, inductions into the Sportsmen's Hall of Fame and much more. The show runs 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $8 adults, $3 children. For more info, visit www.lasportsmenshow.com. -- Etheridge

Jonny Lang 8 p.m. Thursday, March 4; 9 p.m., Friday, March 5 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-2583 By the time he was 13, blues whiz kid Jonny Lang was already leading a band on the competitive Midwest circuit. Eventually settling in Minneapolis, he went on to record two platinum albums, Lie to Me and Wander This World, and receive a Grammy nomination while still a teenager. Unlike most child blues prodigies, Lang's strong suit isn't his guitar playing but his singing, which possesses an almost miraculous grit and world-weariness for such a young person. Lang's soulful voice is what attracted blues luminaries B.B. King, Luther Allison, Buddy Guy and Lonnie Brooks to him. Lang waited four years to make his latest album, Long Time Coming, which is much closer to contemporary rock than blues. "Give Me Up Again," "Give What You Give" and "If We Try" are strong rockers, while "Red Light" and "Goodbye Letter" showcase Lang's voice on R&B-style ballads. Tickets $40. -- John Swenson

Hairy Apes BMX 10 p.m. Friday, March 5 Shiloh, 4529 Tchoupitoulas St., 895-1456 The Hairy Apes BMX probably knew what they were getting into when they chose a name guaranteed to land them in a pubic forest of nasty sex Web sites. The BMX stands for Butt Moving Experience, which these rhythm devils deliver live. Erstwhile leader/percussionist Mike Dillon is an alumnus of the Denton, Texas-based polka rock band Brave Combo as well as Les Claypool's Frog Brigade and BillyGoat, which also included band members J.J. Richards and Zac Baird. The Apes jam less in the Dead Zone than the sonic abstractions of Ornette Coleman and Thelonious Monk with a little Bad Brains to boot. And in an era when political rock has gone into hiding, the Apes rant like Jello Biafra. The band's second album, Beautiful Seizure, was recorded during the opening stages of the current Iraq war and reflects a dark, political view best expressed in "Redneck Julius Caesar." Admission $7. -- Swenson

Cirque Eloize's Nomade 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 6 Heymann Performing Arts Center, 1373 S. College Road, Lafayette, (337) 262-8686 We here at Gambit Weekly have been searching for ways to offer a wide range of entertainment options -- particularly those of a more regional variety -- and we can't think of a better way to start things off in Hot Seven than with the Performing Arts Society of Acadiana's (PASA) presentation of Cirque Eloize. This internationally acclaimed circus troupe hailing from Quebec's Magdalen Islands strives for a more artistic and poetic rendering of the circus experience. The troupe's latest offering, Nomade, creates a nighttime carnival atmosphere that blends song, dance and acrobatics in its exploration of the path from conflict to harmony in the rituals of vagabond life. It's an intriguing meshing of traditional and modern circus aesthetics (look for a stage designing using natural materials such as aged wood and Old World fabric). Tickets range from $7.50-$33.50 balcony seating and $33.50-$39.50 orchestra seating and can be purchased by through Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com) or through PASA (www.pasaonline.org). -- David Lee Simmons

The Graduates 8 p.m. Saturday, March 6 NOCCA/Riverfront, Lupin Hall, 2800 Chartres St., 940-2900 While the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts is the undisputed home to top local artistic talent, on a national level New York's Juilliard School sets the standard. This Saturday, the worlds collide as New Orleanian Sakiko Ohashi puts together an ensemble of classical musicians and fellow Juilliard alumni in what will be a world-debut performance. Billed as the Graduates, the group features pianist Ohashi along with cellist Edward Arron, violinist Helen Hwaya and Nicholas Cords on viola. A native of Kobe, Japan, Ohashi has recorded works by Creole composers Gottschalk, Dede and Lambert, and teaches on the faculty at NOCCA. Considered rising talents with already incredible credentials, the quartet will interpret works by Darius Milhaud ("Piano Quartet Op. 417), Johannes Brahms ("Piano Quartet No. 1 Op. 25 in G minor) and even NOCCA/Riverfront's Stephen Dankner. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at www.nocca.com. -- Etheridge

BROWN! 10th anniversary shows 8:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. Saturday, March 6 True Brew Cafe, 200 Julia St., 524-8440 The longest-running improvisational troupe in New Orleans, BROWN!'s roots trace back to the now-demolished Movie Pitchers in Mid-City, where the group began its "this is brown" performances in 1994. In 2000, BROWN! moved to True Brew, and has enjoyed success in the improved digs with a regular Saturday night gig and larger audiences. Improvisational comedy is so rarely performed here that the engaging, interactive appeal of the form eludes many locals, who draw only loose connections to standard bearers such as Chicago's famed Second City or ABC's Whose Line Is It Anyway?, BROWN! draws on audience suggestions to spark spontaneous comedy sketches, songs and scenes. Music and improv "games" are also heavily used for this cast featuring P.H. Fred, Andrew Hebert, Bill Berry, Kenneth LaFrance and Jennifer Lindsley. Tickets for BROWN!'s 10th anniversary performances are $10, with proceeds benefiting the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (LA/SPCA). More info at www.BrownImprov.com. -- Etheridge

Kaki King, Keb Mo' 9 p.m. Sunday, March 7 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE Kaki King visits a nail salon regularly, but it's not for vanity; it's to beef up the nails on her right hand with acrylic so she can get a fuller sound out of her strings. The 24-year-old solo acoustic guitarist will try anything to eke more tone colors out of her instrument. She is a one-woman, one-instrument band, combining the unusual tunings of Michael Hedges, the guitar-beating percussion of Preston Reed, and the meticulous finger-picking style of Leo Kottke. With its slap-bass low-end and lucid, jazzy melodies, King's self-produced solo debut, Everybody Loves You, features original compositions ranging from the short, playful "Kewpie Station" to the lengthy epic "Fortuna" and its hidden end track. King shares two-handed playing and odd tunings with the late Hedges, but her urban attitude takes little influence from New Age tranquility. She opens for Keb Mo'. Tickets $25. -- Diettinger

Al Souza: Recent Work Through March 27 Arthur Roger Gallery, 432 Julia St., 522-1999 It's like finding a needle in a haystack. No, we're not talking WMDs -- what we're talking about here visibly exists. They are pieces of jigsaw puzzles, hundreds, thousands of them, all employed in Al Souza's abstract pop collages. Often the imagery is gaudy or banal, yet the way Souza puts them together can be vertiginously intriguing. Standing atop a ladder in his studio with all the pieces scattered on the floor below, he surveys his terrain like a surrealist spy satellite looking for Osama. What we get instead are pizzas and waterfalls, cockatoos, parrots and holy icons which end up arranged according to a psychedelic new world order that makes visual sense if not necessarily any other kind of sense. All of which makes about as much sense as anything we see on the TV nightly news these days. -- D. Eric Bookhardt