He sits on a stage - a stage that looks more like a wilting Southern front porch than the focal point of one of Tacoma's local music venues - playing a beaten acoustic guitar. It kind of sounds like the blues, but it's not. It kind of feels like you should be drinking moonshine, but you're not - just beer.

The scene in front of you is part music, part humor, part performance art - and all bizarre.

Ladies and gentleman, Swampy Draws.

"I'm not very good at playing guitar. I try to make it sound bluesy," says Sean Nivens, the man behind Swampy Draws, a "musical" entity that includes drummer Mudbutt Mysterio banging on all sorts of household shit, and bassist Pootooth McDinglesharts - together combining to create something of a dysfunctional, drunken, very Tacoma jug band.

"We never practice."

Honestly, with names like Swampy Draws, Mudbutt Mysterio and Pootooth McDinglesharts - who needs practice? It's apparent from Swampy's first rough banjo or guitar pluck, or his fifth beer that the phenomenon of Swampy Draws is only partially about the music.

It's about the full, dirty, unkempt package - shit jokes and all. The music of Swampy Draws, utilizing Nivens' unique, Southern-esque drawl, ranges from almost believable to downright juvenile. Whether it's an original number, or a bastardized cover - and no matter how "unprofessional" it actually sounds - there's simply an appeal to Swampy Draws that can't be denied.

Love it or hate it, people can't help but watch.

"We started out just wanting to do something different," says Nivens, having certainly succeeded in this endeavor after only two years as a "band" - for lack of a more appropriate classification.

"It's gotten a really good reaction. I played Jazzbones one time and I thought that crowd would hate me, but after the show I had people coming up to me that said they loved it.

"There are so many different types of crowd (in Tacoma)," continues Nivens. "It brings people out that you wouldn't expect."

With two shows this weekend, playing the Green Room's "Annual Customer Appreciation Party" at Hell's Kitchen on Saturday, and The Spar in Old Town on Sunday with The Bluebillies, the next few days - once again - provide an opportunity for Swampy Draws to distill the band's performance art-meets-blues-meets-toothless drinking game vibe on yet another gaggle of the suspecting and unsuspecting. 

If you don't already know the overalls-clad Swampy one, consider yourself warned.

"I'm excited," says Nivens of the Saturday show at Hell's Kitchen, a "Customer Appreciation" night for the Green Room on Sixth Ave. "People need pipes."

The Hell's Kitchen show is one thing, but will Swampy Draws change his tune - ever so slightly - for the Spar and Old Town?

Signs point to no.

"It depends on how drunk I am," explains Nivens of his live performances, and whether he caters specifically to his crowd.

According to Nivens, Sunday's show at the Spar will be the last Swampy Draws live performance "for a while." The band plans to focus on other aspects of their art over the coming months, specifically a TV pilot they're working on with Tacoma's bearded hero, Justin Peterson - the same man that designed Swampy Draws' one-of-a-kind, Southern front porch stage setup. Nivens says the pilot is based on the band's song "Camel Toe," and how it came to be.

"We're going to focus more on the visual aspect of our show," says Nivens of plans to record the pilot, which is already written.

"There'll be all sorts of blatant jokes, like throwing a hot dog down a hallway."

Tacoma can hardly wait, I'm sure.

But it'll have to, at least until Swampy Draws stumbles through two not-to-miss shows this weekend.

[Hell's Kitchen, Swampy Draws, The Revengers, Mighty High, Walk the Plank, Trip the Light Fantastic, Wheelies, Nothing You'd Like, Saturday, April 17, doors at 4:20 p.m., $7, 928 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]

[The Spar, The Bluebillies, Swampy Draws, Sunday, April 18, 7 p.m., no cover, 2121 N. 30th St., Tacoma, 253.627.8215]