There's nothing like a rocking family fan club to renew a band's energy. This year Tereso proved that childlike spunk is as important as looking like hardcore punks, when they let the Teresitos (four-year-old Ella, six-year-old Belen, and thirteen-year-old Luna) jump onstage to shake their butts and shout back-up vocals alongside singers uncle Chelo Crocetti and dads Juan and Alejo Rozas. After eleven years together, the bandmates produced their first full-length album, Youth Divine Treasure. The CD offers a hard-driving garage-grunge band sound with an explosion of youthful energy, no doubt a testimony to hanging with the kiddies. But in March the gals had to stay home and prep the newest addition, three-month-old Delfin. Tereso packed its caravan with electric guitars and amps for its first major non-Miami tour -- first stop: Los Angeles -- where the band opened for Volumen Cero.

For years Matthew Sabatella has been an important parochial player, first as the bass player and a singer for masterful rock band Broken Spectacles, then as a sideman for a number of groups, a solo artist, producer, Webmaster. Slight and soft-spoken, he has always been a large and loud presence in South Florida music. If any criticism might be leveled, it would be only that he spread himself a bit thin, trying to accomplish too much both as an artist and advocate. A couple of years ago Sabatella, in the tradition of documentarian Ken Burns, became enmeshed in a vast and significant project: chronicling American history through song. The acoustic Ballad of America, Volume 1: Over a Wide and Fruitful Land has been embraced by critics, museums, and fans. Featuring a number of top South Florida players and instruments such as banjo, fiddle, concertina, resonator guitar, bodhran, harmonica, mandolin, and upright bass behind Sabatella's potent baritone vocals, the record is both modern-sounding and faithful to its inspiration. It includes a twelve-page booklet of histories for each song. The second volume, the musician promises, will be released this year. Flashing forward to the past, Sabatella is bringing forth some beautiful and important music. The commitment he's shown and passion he's clearly felt are equally admirable.

Truly a neighborhood bar, Keg South is family-friendly in the afternoons and early evenings, when the place fills with happy-hour revelers as well as parents with kids still uniformed from soccer or T-ball practice. Tucked away on a sidestreet just across 137th Avenue from the Kendall-Tamiami Airport, this Keg South location (there is another farther south) is the watering hole for residents from Kendall to Country Walk and the many unnamed portions of unincorporated South Miami-Dade that make up the surrounding area. Excellent bar food is available (the catfish po'boy is excellent, as is the simple queso blanco appetizer), and diversions abound: In addition to the TV sets tuned to local sports, the bar boasts a pool table and several arcade-style videogames.

South Miami and Kendall are not known for wild nights and hedonistic revelry. By 11:00 p.m. the crickets are louder than the burbs between Kendall Drive and Bird Road. Aside from a handful of bars, there's not much for southern suburbanites to do without driving for 30 minutes. Luckily Martini Bar in the Shops at Sunset Place gives a breath of fresh air to the stale nightlife scene south of Brickell. Even though it's located inside a mall, you'll think you're partying it up on Washington Avenue by your third vodka tonic. So drop those shopping bags and pick up a martini glass, because DJs, live bands, and flowing alcohol keep patrons moving to the beat. Happy-hour specials and an In the Biz discount offer additional booty-shaking incentives to the other nightly festivities. One pleasantly unusual advantage that Martini Bar has over its beach-bordering competition is that it's open seven days a week till 5:00 a.m. If you hanker to take an unexpected "sick day" in the middle of the week, Martini Bar is glad to hand you a prescription.

There was a time, after the extinction of dinosaurs and the ascension of Homo sapiens, when pinball ruled the Earth. Miami, like most major cities, was dotted with arcades housing dozens and dozens of flippered, belled, whistled, and generally colorful games that required concentration, eye-to-hand coordination, and a certain je ne sais quois to master. Then came Pong. Donkey Kong. Space Invaders. Galaga. Mr. and Ms. Pacman. Pinball survived but was relegated to the shadows. Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation (the third version of which will be Sony's first global release, an endeavor so far beyond the company's usual Japan-then-other-nations-after-fixing-glitches approach that it has been postponed) have pretty much sent pinball the way of the 'saurs. In the U.S. there were one million machines in play in 1989. Ten years later the number sank to a depressing 360,000. Revenue dipped from $2.4 billion to $1.08 billion in the same period, according to trade publication Vending Times. Five versions of the classic game are available for play at the family-friendly Fun-O-Rama.

Afro-Cuban fusion singer Descemer Bueno's calls home to Havana are echoing from Miami stages across the Florida Straits to the seawall along Malecón Boulevard in the Cuban capital, and even onto Madrid's music scene. Bueno, a founder of legendary Latin funk band Yerba Buena and current frontman of Siete Rayo, boasts a brand of funk, jazz, merengue, reggaeton, hip-hop and Afro-Cuban rhythms all his own. It was recognized with a record deal from Universal Latino, as well as Spain's prestigious Goya Award for Best Music Written for a Film in the movie Havana Blues. When Bueno belts out the song "Habana," it sounds like an eerie cry, a yearning for unification in the Cuban diaspora. "If I never go back, it will break my heart," he sings, followed by a reinforcement of all that he is: "I represent the Afro-Cuban generation." Let's hope that cry will lead to a new understanding of Cuba in all its of political and ethnographic makeup.

In the basement of a shuttered hotel at mid-Beach, barflies in the know gathered daily to celebrate the joys of the perfect neighborhood watering hole. Since 1958, Chamber Lounge had served good advice along with impressively stiff drinks (and occasional freebies for those who looked like they merited a hangover). The friendliest bar in town also had the most diverse clientele. On any given night, models and celebs could be seen rubbing elbows with residents and snowbirds while hipsters exchanged toasts with the city's upper crust. The only thing missing was bad attitude. This 2004 Best of Miami winner for Best Neighborhood Bar is scheduled to become yet another condominium conversion.

Once a month DJ Jazzy Jeff (of "... and the Fresh Prince" fame) spun at Shine at the Shelborne, making for a night of booty-grinding and straight-up drunken fun. In between serving cosmos and cocktails, scantily clad bartenders danced on the bar, much to the pleasure of hollering bystanders of the male gender. Popular hip-hop tracks satisfied the crowd's need to boogie to songs everyone knows. There must have been some subliminal message in Jeff's mixes, urging patrons to imbibe to the point where inhibitions, budgets, and shame were abandoned. Or maybe it was just the combination of a rowdy party and exceptionally strong drinks that kept cheeks rosy, the booze flowing, and bodies moving. Jazzy Jeff's bumping sets and star appeal brought in the masses for a party that any South Beach regular could appreciate. Okay, so you missed that gig, and Shine is closing for renovations, but you can still catch Jeff at other South Florida venues. Check out his Website for more info.

The what-ifs are haunting. They say you have a beautiful voice. That you can dance. That you're really funny. Are you truly an undiscovered star? Whether it's music, dance, theater, or comedy, get over the stage fright and test your material before a live audience. Miami is not, for sure, New York, but at least we have Luna Star's open mike twice a month (every second and fourth Saturday, beginning at 8:00 p.m.). "It's a free-for-all. Music, poetry, comedy. You can do whatever you want," says owner Alexis Sanfield. It's also first come, first served. Put your name on the list early -- because roughly seven to nine performers get a shot each night. Good news for newbies: The audience is very supportive. No boo birds at Luna. And even if you bomb, you can drown your sorrows in one of Luna's 100 beers. Prices range from $3 bottles of Rolling Rock to a Belgian for $17.

Tucked away inside the posh architecture of the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, you'll spy a thatched hut that's light years away from the kind of prissy sensibility one might expect from such a fancy-pants hotel. Cantina Beach feels like a different key than Biscayne. After a decadent evening of tequila shots, passion fruit margaritas, and freshly made guacamole at this oceanfront restaurant, you just might begin thinking you've crossed the Seven Mile Bridge and gone to Key West. The view of the Atlantic is breathtaking, the décor is to die for, and the menu offers 50 different tequilas. Ay, caramba! A lush could get into a world of trouble in a place as wonderful as this one.