The Tacoma Dome hosts the enormously popular lowbrow diversion Monster Jam this weekend for a screeching, smashing round of vehicle-crunching monster-truck competitions featuring, among others, champion truck Gravedigger, and its amped-up mechanical opponents, among others: Northern Nightmare, Monster Mutt Dalmatian, Metal Mulisha, New Earth Authority, El Toro Loco and Captain USA and Double Trouble - driven by Gig Harbor brothers Travis and Tyler Groth, respectively. (Keep in mind that while the drivers are important, the trucks - gargantuan bundles of concentrated horsepower that can fly up to 25 feet in the air - are the real stars.) And talk about spectacle! No matter where you're seated in the Tacoma Dome, you won't need binoculars: At eleven feet tall and weighing in at 9,000 pounds, monster trucks are easy to eyeball as they mash the motor, teeter, roll and auger in (monster-ese for a nosedive - as if you didn't know).

Read Nikki McCoy's full feature on the Groth brothers in the Military Life section.

Read Nikki McCoy's feature story on the GreothMONSTER JAM, 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3, 10 a.m. to noon party pit, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, 1 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 5, Tacoma Dome, 2727 E. D St., Tacoma, $15-$36, 253.272.3663. www.tacomadome.org