Fri., Aug. 11, 8 p.m., $5, Ellen Powell Tiberino Museum, 3819 Hamilton St., 215-382-2003

The original masters of mixed-media mayhem, The Hydrogen Jukebox started adding different elements to its shows because they were sick of fighting for patrons' attention as a psychedelic rock bar band.

So about two years ago, they incorporated dancers, poets, sword-swallowers, fire-spitters, human pin cushions and performance art acts depicting the birth of naked clowns covered in fake blood from giant toothed vaginas, "with the afterbirth attached," says bassist and keyboardist Matt Broomfield.

It all adds up to a multisensory experience you couldn't ignore if you were in a coma, to say nothing of the music.

The Hydrogen Jukebox like their music like they like their performance art: going in all directions at once. The band has also expanded to six members, with two guitars, bass, drums, flute and clarinet. Bloomfield tosses around the word "postmodern" when describing their sound. "We try to incorporate as many different forms of music as we're influenced by," he says. "In one song there can be country and metal and folk."

The show on Friday starts with a set of Hydrogen Jukebox's music, but after that it gets even more unpredictable, with only a loose script directing traffic in this bitches' brew of art and music. But there is one macabre theme holding this run of the Carnivolution together: scary-ass clowns. Coulrophobia sufferers everywhere take note: Hydrogen Jukebox plans to hit the road in the fall and winter.