Duane Peters

Duane Peters simply must have a guardian angel perched on his shoulder. It's really the only plausible explanation. By all accounts, the hard-living, skate-punk icon should be another casualty of rock 'n' roll excess. After all, he has amassed quite a resume of reckless behavior over the years, including drug and alcohol abuse, property destruction and joining--if not instigating--countless rumbles.

SANTA ANA 8pm Pop Music With his main band U.S. Bombs on hiatus, skate-punk hero Duane Peters is concentrating these days on his other group, the Hunns. The Huntington Beach resident is 40 but hasn't lost a bit of his punk edge, which is crystal clear in his caustic view of Surf City as expressed in the self-explanatory "Nuke H.B." from the Hunns' latest album, "Unite." Peters and company promise to stir things up at their show in Santa Ana.

SANTA ANA 8pm Pop Music With his main band U.S. Bombs on hiatus, skate-punk hero Duane Peters is concentrating these days on his other group, the Hunns. The Huntington Beach resident is 40 but hasn't lost a bit of his punk edge, which is crystal clear in his caustic view of Surf City as expressed in the self-explanatory "Nuke H.B." from the Hunns' latest album, "Unite." Peters and company promise to stir things up at their show in Santa Ana.

Duane Peters simply must have a guardian angel perched on his shoulder. It's really the only plausible explanation. By all accounts, the hard-living, skate-punk icon should be another casualty of rock 'n' roll excess. After all, he has amassed quite a resume of reckless behavior over the years, including drug and alcohol abuse, property destruction and joining--if not instigating--countless rumbles.

Aloha to the Lava Lounge, which celebrates its ninth birthday tonight with its annual hot Lava Luau. Senor Amor is DJ, so you know Cupid's gonna be in the hiz-ous. We hear that the downtown Standard hotel's hottest scene is Sunday afternoon, when DJs spin on its rooftop. Top that. Punk of the Week award goes to Greg Hetson. I ran into the Bad Religion guitarist in Ventura at the Vans Warped Tour.

* Tickets go on sale Saturday for a show by Marilyn Manson, right, at the Universal Amphitheatre on Jan. 13. Godhead is also on the bill. . . . Also coming to Universal is the "Old Skool Christmas Concert" on Dec. 23, featuring Charlie Wilson with the Gap Band, Morris Day & the Time and Lakeside. Tickets go on sale Sunday. . . . Tickets will be available Saturday for a bill of P.O.D., Project 86, Living Sacrifice and Dogwood on Dec. 23 at the Palace. . . . The same lineup plays Dec.

Smiths, covered and uncovered Stop me if you think you've heard this one before, but the Smiths were in the house at Bang! on Saturday night and the club kids were in heaven. After a rousing live set by the fab Smiths cover band the Sweet and Tender Hooligans, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce took over the turntables at the popular Britpop club, held each week at the Ruby in Hollywood. At first, the worshipful audience just stared. But soon they let their pompadours down and danced the night away....

One look at omnipresent Camelback Mountain and you might think the northeast Phoenix neighborhood known as Arcadia is on the outskirts of town where tumbleweeds blow effortlessly. But you'd be wrong - very, very wrong. Arcadia is where you'll find twentysomethings hanging out at recently opened gastropubs, young families walking to nearby parks, mini-malls with pizzerias and dive bars featuring Skee ball and foosball. This might sound like Los Angeles, but one glimpse of a helmet-less biker cruising down Campbell Avenue and you'll know you aren't in California.