The sunny days that last weekend brought us outdoors in our summer duds will return -- but not this weekend. With a forecast of showers and nights that will still require a warm layer or two, it's a good thing there's plenty of interesting (and danceable) nightlife to make it a weekend of fine music: underground, overground, spread the sound. DJ lineups and fusions with live performance and theme elements -- sitar and tabla, spoken word, army fatigue costumes -- in particular mark this weekend's fun.

Dance, funboy. Dance, fungirl. Or chillax. Winter may be gone, but brothers and sisters, why not keep warm anyway, while the term still applies?

Friday night, April 27:

Sumkidz and Blue Dot gear up for their Saturday night trip to the K-dub with a special presentation of Montreal techno star Akufen (a.k.a. Marc Leclair) at Crosstown (178 Bathurst). Indie tech innovator Spooloops ("Canada's best kept secret"? Judging by sets at Promise and Sumkidz parties I've heard, I could roll with that), Rollin' Ca$h, Splee3kebo and Mike Lambert round out the tunage, while dynamic duo Siren and Zumba put up the visual treats. $15 from 10PM till midnight, $20 after -- this one will go late.

The stellar collection of global downtempo sound-scapers at the Sonic Turtle event features B.C.'s Interchill favourite Adham Shaikh in his own set and as part of Dream Tree Project,"a magic carpet ride of tribal dub infused ragas", with Shaikh on bass, synth and laptop, tabla player E. Shankar and sitar player Uwe Neumann. Local groovesters Shen (a.k.a. Noah Pred) and Medicineman represent along with and Montreal's Neerav. Presented by Alien Influx, Promise and Small World Music at Dragonfly, 1279 Queen St. West, just east of Brock and west of Dufferin (note venue change), $22. Shen leads off at 10PM, followed by an extended Adham Shaikh experience -- solo DJ set, plus Dream Tree Project performance -- starting around the midnight hour or a touch earlier, then Medicineman and Neerav into the wee hours.

Poetry, spoken word, percussion and house music collide at IV Lounge on Dundas for The Poet and The DJ, featuring local poetesses with style zAyla Weedz, Lisa "Luscious" Tai and Rosina Kazi of LAL and the Toronto Women's Bookstore. The performers will add their words over layers of house music provided by DJ Pablo Hernandez. $5 contribution, preferably in the form of advance ticket purchase from Lisa Tai.

Birthday boy DJ Jamie Kidd leads the Friday night charge at TOI Bar, where the no-cover Fukhouse series of minimal house and techno has been consistently jammed with happy crowds. Ian Guthrie, Eric Downer and Noah Pred are also in the mix.

Movement maintains the deep funk sessions at Supermarket with DJs John Kong, Jason Palma and Nasty Nav, $5 before 11PM.

Wine, cheese, art ... and vinyl: iNSiDEaMiND -- a.k.a. DJ Steptone and Professor Fingers, your friendly neighbourhood musicians on turntables, who head off soon for their first European tour -- kick off a two gigs in two nights at 696B Queen East (at Broadview). This one's an accompaniment for artist Sheetalina. Then, on ...

Saturday, April 28:

... the guys bring their audio toys while Videocake (a.k.a. Jackie Brown) brings her visuals to The Disciple's Daydream (a.k.a. Open Minds Respect Events), a night of mixed-media choreography at the No Regrets Lounge (42 Mowat, southeast of King and Dufferin) in Liberty Village, along with wordplay from Slam Family Poetry Collective and Detroit-based hip-hop poet Versiz. $10 or $5 with flyer. Open mic beings at 8PM followed by "rustbelt qualifying round" of poetry slammin' at 9.

Make It Funky? Actually, for once, no -- Make It Reggae this time out with MiF and NuFunk's tribute to classic reggae, including performances by The Irie Band and a tag-tem of DJs Big League Chu and Czech, the latter doing a special set of reggae breaks in his final Toronto performance before moving away to that Republic of the same name. Dubplates from Muva Soundsystem and dub rock from Zirca round out the night.

Shocker: The Party returns to Tiger Bar with DJs Ted Dancin', Lazy Ray and others with raucous tastes in bumpin' beats packed into tight spaces.

Paul E. Lopes of Bump n' Hustle joins residents Patrick Paredes, ClichĂŠ and Tony Lanz for the brand new bag at Vintage. That's another TOI Bar no-cover event, and one with pre--11PM drink specials. Dig!

Molotov Mashup at Cocktail Molotov (928 Dundas West near Bellwoods) celebrates its one-year existence as the definitive WestEnd Massive selection for all things dub, afro-beat, dancehall and rock steady with selectors Dominique (Dub Lounge), JC and special guest including Iron Will, Donkey Chest, Anousheh and Unkle Fingrz. Free.

Attention! Jaxxhouze slips into sexy army fatigues and hopes you'll wear yours if you join their Enchanted Tribal Platoon, with soldiers DJTK and Nathan Barato on the decks. "And there my be a handsome Mountie ensuring protocol is in order at the door." Expect tribal house among the beats pulsing out of The Gallery at Guvernment. Doors at 11PM. (Fly recon over to their MySpace blog posts for info on gueslist and prize pack giveaways.)

One more freebie-birthday shakedown: Fusicology presents rare groove, funk and classic house man DJ-J-Me pumping it up for his own April 2007 anniversary edition of Soul Shack at China Doll, 587 College.

Image randomly found via jackiz