To say that the little thing we call Roustabout! leaves an impression on its fans every week will soon be more than just a silly cliché.

Throw out those little buttons on the flap of your jean jacket. People who represent hardcore, or pretend to (Ryan Adams), get tattoos.

And tonight at the Darkhorse Tavern, 128 E. College Ave., the $3 cover charge is an automatic entry for a raffle in which one lucky Rouster will walk away with a $50 gift certificate to Tattoo Mark's Studio, 441 E. Calder Way.

Ringmaster of the musical carnival Jeff Van Fossan said if he had it his way, the winner would be inscribed with a Roustabout! logo by default.

"Well, if Jeff had his way, a lot of things would be goofy," DJ Tyler Kulp said jokingly.

Actually, and to employ yet another cliché, it seems like winning days for Van Fossan and his band The Bullet Parade.

Roustabout! finally has a home is cyberspace. Its Web site, www.roustabout.net, has been up and running for about a month and offers fans a place to get information about the event each week.

And the word is spreading. Roustabout!s are springing up like fight clubs in cities such as Washington, D.C., and New York. After playing a show at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan over spring break, The Bullet Parade was invited back for a show on April 3 to host the event with The ShakeDowns.

Christened with the name the State College version made almost world famous, the event is paid for entirely by the venue. Which means you, the peanut gallery, pay exactly zero dollars to see the spectacle.

Van Fossan was first inspired to create Roustabout! by clubs in San Francisco and Philadelphia that featured really good dance music, which could be classified as Brit-pop. He said that Roustabout! is essentially just a copy (but not a cliché) of those parties with the addition of live bands, so it's weird to see his version catching on so well. That's not to say it makes him unhappy.

"Saturday night for free is a pretty sweet plum," he said of the Knitting Factory gig.

As for happenings on the home front, tonight's Roustabout! will feature Van Fossan's Bullet Parade as well as Philadelphia's National Eye.

National Eye started out making lo-fi demos on a four-track recorder. November saw the band's debut release The Meter Glows, which was praised by an All Music Guide writer as "one of the most honest rock & roll records of 2003."

While this may sound cliché, Van Fossan spoke highly of the album's production, citing in particular mixer Thom Monahan, who is also a member of The Pernice Brothers.

"Some really gangbuster people have been involved with this record," he said.

Rounding out tonight's entertainment are DJs Tyler Kulp and Tim Sellers, who will each be spinning records between sets.

The pair will try to outdo each other on their respective turntables, spinning to new heights of danceability and goofiness. Now that's definitely not cliché.