BEST BETS FRIDAY 9/1

all day Music

Can’t stop the music. That could be the motto for the Sweet & Hot Music Festival, which will present four straight days and nights of live sounds rooted in the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s. More than 200 musicians and some 20 bands are scheduled to perform swing, big band, blues and various forms of jazz (including ragtime, New Orleans and Chicago). The Bill Elliott Orchestra, Pat Yankee’s Gentlemen of Jazz and the Bobby Gordon Trio are among the artists slated to occupy eight venues at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel.

* Sweet & Hot Music Festival, Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel, 5855 Century Blvd., Los Angeles. Friday through Monday, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Friday, $25; Saturday and Sunday, $40; Monday, $20. All-events pass, $80. (818) 363-1611.

noon

Dance

The festive spirit and culture of Hawaii lives at the annual E Hula Mau Hula and Chant Competition this weekend in Long Beach. The three-day event represents a choice opportunity for Southern Californians to experience authentic Hawaiian hula dancing and chanting. Opening ceremonies and solo and couples performances will happen Friday. Saturday will be devoted to ancient group hula and chant competitions. Contemporary group performances will take place Sunday. The competitions will feature a broad range of divisions, from children to elders, representing 14 mainland-based hula schools. The event will also include a Hawaiian arts and crafts fair and food booths, a Hawaiian dinner with dancing and a concert featuring Hawaiian musical artists.

* E Hula Mau Hula and Chant Competition, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, Terrace Theater, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Friday, noon to 10 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. $15. Hawaiian dinner at the Long Beach Marriott, 4700 Airport Plaza Drive, Long Beach, Saturday, 5:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. $20.95; children, $14.95. Hawaiian concert at the Terrace Theater, Sunday, 7 p.m. $25. Competition times and other details: (562) 436-3661; dinner reservations: (562) 627-8036.

7:30pm

Pop Music

Aside from a New Year’s Eve show, the Red Hot Chili Peppers haven’t played the Southland since their 1999 album, “Californication,” reestablished the band as an essential voice of Los Angeles rock. They share the bill with two other bands with similar back-from-the-brink stories to tell, Stone Temple Pilots and the Bicycle Thief, led by Thelonious Monster’s Bob Forrest.

* Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, the Bicycle Thief, Friday and Saturday at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 8808 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. 7:30 p.m. $25 and $35 (Friday sold out). (949) 855-2863.

8pm

Theater

Chamber Stevens plays all the roles in the West Coast premiere of “Chesapeake,” Lee Blessing’s latest, a seriocomic play about a Chesapeake Bay retriever that becomes the unwitting accomplice to a performance artist’s plot to bring down a right-wing Southern congressman out to dismantle the NEA.

* “Chesapeake,” Venice Theatreworks at the Electric Lodge, 1416 Electric Ave., Venice. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Sept. 23. $15. (310) 281-6299, (310) 306-1854.

8pm

Theater

International City Theatre inaugurates Long Beach’s newly renovated Center Theatre with Joe Orton’s outrageous black comedy “Loot,” about a shady British cop and some bank robbers, one of whom is using his mother’s funeral as an occasion to hide the stolen funds--in Mom’s coffin. Mom gets around quite a bit for one who’s deceased, though, and a murderous nurse complicates things, too.

* “Loot,” International City Theatre at Center Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Sept. 24. $25 to $35; opening night, $40 to $60. (562) 436-4610.

all day

Movies

The Rolling Stones are captured in their prime at an ill-fated 1969 concert tour in the documentary “Gimme Shelter,” which will be re-released Friday at the Vista Theater. The film, directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, manages to evoke both the spirit of the era’s music--including Jefferson Airplane and Ike and Tina Turner--and its darkness, including chilling footage of the fatal stabbing at Altamont Raceway.

* “Gimme Shelter,” unrated, opens Friday exclusively at the Vista Theater, 4473 Sunset Drive, Los Feliz. (323) 660-6639.

8:30pm

Music

John Mauceri conducts the traditional Tchaikovsky Spectacular, this year featuring the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the San Francisco Ballet. In addition to “Swan Lake,” Act 2, the program offers the “Romeo and Juliet” Fantasy-Overture and, of course, the “1812” Overture, with fireworks.

* The Tchaikovsky Spectacular, the Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, 8:30 p.m., repeated Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. $3 to $85. (323) 850-2000.

FREEBIE

Fantcha--a singer from Cape Verde in the tradition of Cesaria Evora--performs at 8 p.m. at the Watercourt at California Plaza, 350 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. (213) 687-2159.