Some people will spend Feb. 14 listening to sad songs. Others will celebrate love songs. Several will immerse themselves in sad songs about love. And a fourth group will flip the bird to Valentine's Day cliches and skank the Hallmark holiday away at Lucerna's "One Love Circus," a Valentine's Day ska festival.

The concert will bring to town Italian rocksteady outfit Mr. T-Bone and All-Star Band and Basque ska-punkers Skunk, with local support provided by Fast Food and 2V1. The crowded hall of bobbing heads should increase the chances of making that oh-so-special connection that had proved elusive just the day before. But there will be competition.

"The saxophonist and the drummer are together; the rest of us are single," Skunk bassist Kristof Skunk (they all go by Skunk) writes in an e-mail from the French side of Basque country. "It could be that we'll find love in Prague."

The band first played here at 007 Strahov several years ago, and again last year. Members' main complaint is that there's never been enough time before sound check or after they've put down their instruments to relax and sample the many delights of the city. Kristof says Skunk has played in more than 20 countries — including a concert five years ago in Beirut — in its decade and a half of existence, and during that time, Prague, of all the cities, is "la mas guapa."

Much as he has collected double-digit passport stamps, Kristof has shared the stage with several different bandmates in his time in Skunk. In fact, after 13 years in the band, he's the only musician who remains from the group's first record, Eh Beh ... Ze Pasatzen Da?? (Very roughly, the name translates from Basque as "Hey, What's Happening Here?"). The 1996 full-length release followed three demos. Since then, the group has put out five more LPs, along with singles and EPs, and had several songs released on compilations.

In the course of an estimated 600 concerts on three continents, Skunk has played with large and small acts from all over the world, including U.S. acts like Fishbone and the Voodoo Glow Skulls. Skunk's songs, primarily in Basque, but also in French and Spanish (and one in Italian), reflect the multiculturalism of Europe and the universalism of music — as well as life in a culture that has its home in two countries but remains distinct from each. The multilingual mix, along with the group's crossing of genres, has earned it comparisons to such Spanish successes as Mano Negra.