Ah, the Future Show Benefit Show: the local music scene's glorious feedback loop. "Want to see a great show? Well, then you need to see this great show."

Awesome.

If you're at all interested in seeing next weekend's Music and Art in Wright Park festival, it'd be best for you to come to The New Frontier Lounge on Saturday, where you'll get to preview several of the bands that will grace the Wright Park stage - including Basemint, Cody Foster Army, and the Speans.

One of these things is not like the other.

The Speans are something of an odd duck in Tacoma, and my awareness of the band has been hazily increasing over the past few months. I saw the awkward moniker on a NoMeansNo bill last year, but it didn't quite click. I'd occasionally notice the band was playing a show, but never thought much of it. Recently, I was cornered at Puget Sound Pizza by a woman who excitedly told me I just had to check out the Speans' live. She said it was unforgettable.

So what's the deal with the Speans?

"We basically got together just for the hell of it," says guitarist Trevor Lanigan. "We were just going to jam in a basement somewhere and not ever play any shows whatsoever. It got to the point where a friend of ours just kind of pushed us into a show, and we had to write a bunch of music in a week. We did pretty well, so we decided to keep going."

That was 2007. Ever since the Speans have been lying in the shadows, occasionally popping up to do a show before going back to that basement.

The band's sound is unique in these parts: instrumental punk that dabbles in influences like jazz and surf. Their songs, pummeling and loud though they may sometimes be, have a way of slipping into a hypnotic groove.

Live, the Speans utilize videos projected behind them, which helps to punch up the sometimes cinematic aspects of the band. Lanigan, however, is quick to offer a much simpler take on the projection.

"We're playing instrumental music, and we really don't want people to just stare at us playing music," says Lanigan. "We want to put a little more entertainment in there. No secret there ... (Plus I) saw the Butthole Surfers quite a few times."

There's a kind of purity at work with the Speans, as if to say, "Here's the music. If you want something to look at while we're playing, here you go. But we will not sing. Take it or leave it."

Their all-consuming desire to just play in their basement hasn't stopped the members from being part of a long, impressive catalogue of bands over the years, including Honest Abe, Wretch like Me, My Name, Once for Kicks, and Goodbye Harry. The Speans' Bryan Gorder (an animal on the bass) and drummer Jay Clements also spend time in the similarly experimental instrumental Tulsa band, Slorder.

But, impressive credits aside, it's the music that matters. The Speans are about music. Kickass music. Pulverizing bass lines and shredding guitar pyrotechnics populate their songs and provide very little time for the listener to catch their breath. It's all crashing momentum, like a slomo 16-car pileup. The audience is exhilarated to make it out alive.

Rounding out the lineup at the benefit show will be hardcore heroes, C.F.A., as well as Weekly Volcano favorite Basemint. These three bands have very little in common, minus their ability to rock. But the diversity is part of the appeal of a festival. Saturday's microcosm of Music and Art in Wright Park aims to rock on all levels and leave you wanting more.

And trust me, you want more.

The Speans

with C.F.A., Basemint, auction and grab bags
Saturday, Aug. 14, 9 p.m., $5
The New Frontier Lounge, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma
253.572.4020