Amazon Offers Stimulating Environment

OK, so fetish clubs aren’t really your scene, the last time you went disco dancing was 1976, and you think “house” music is what you play at home. Well, that doesn’t mean you have to stay in on weekend nights. The Amazon, a rain-forest theme club and restaurant in Sherman Oaks, might just be the spot for you.

The festive nightclub is kind of like a micro-Disneyland for politically correct grown-ups--a portion of the money you spend at the club goes to rain-forest charities. While you nosh on such delicacies as “tree frog skins” (actually potato skins) and slurp a “piranha colada,” your senses are teased by a variety of stimulants. First, there’s the club centerpiece, a large waterfall surrounded by ominous-looking “H.R. Pufnstuf”-type trees.

Overhead is a twinkling display of comets, shooting stars and the Milky Way, and an aquarium with really big fish is built into a treehouse that’s about six feet above dining level. The treehouse is where most of the action takes place, although there’s also a long bar and, for shyer types, video kiosks featuring rain-forest imagery.

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, the treehouse features an array of bands playing classic rock, Latin and acoustic music. The longest-running treehouse band is B.C., a foursome with a knack for emulating such artists as Van Morrison, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton and Neil Young. While this type of scene might leave the seasoned musicologist cold, folks at the Amazon eat it up, reliving their “Tupelo Honey” days even if they’ve forgotten the words.

* Amazon, 15649 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. 21 and over at bar, all ages in restaurant, no cover. (818) 986-7502.

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Club Buzz: Don’t go quoting Club Buzz, but we heard from a very reliable source that Rickie Lee Jones will be performing two more unannounced dates at the Opium Den (formerly the Gaslight), on Wednesday and April 24. The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter was due to begin her stint earlier this week at the newly revamped Hollywood club, opening for another unannounced artist--ex-Clash singer Joe Strummer.

* The Opium Den, (213) 466-7800.