Last year, I was melting in Austin, Tex., during South By Southwest. In a sticky haze, I found myself outside a blue theater. There, in the parking lot, I saw the best performance of my time at SXSW: the Back Pockets, from Atlanta, Ga. Some 10 or a dozen members fill out the band, including some people seemingly specifically recruited to wear masks and make whooping sounds. The band's music can be poorly encapsulated as art-folk-punk, but the performance adds up to so much more than that. The Back Pockets create a deliriously interactive environment in their live performance, and it's one that you likely won't forget. I know, because (full disclosure part) the Back Pockets were the first band I thought of to book for the third installment of the Squeak and Squawk Music Festival. 

[The New Frontier Lounge, with Wimps, the Cutwinkles, 9 p.m., $5 advance, $7 door, 301 E. 25^th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]