It used to be that garages were utilized in a musical sense due mostly to necessity. They were sanctuaries from disapproving or sensitive-eared parents, or reprieves from the financial constraints of renting studio time. What was eventually discovered, though, were the artistic freedoms granted to a band performing in relative solitude. From the moment the Sonics took an ice pick to their amps and let out that vicious squall, the limits of young punks and their rock ‘n' roll imaginations were blown wide open.

Now, we refer to garage rock acts and forget the lowly, mildewed origins of the term. A "garage" sound is one to be strived for and replicated. Around here, garage bands sprout up like weeds through the sidewalk; as soon as one bows out or changes direction, another invariably pops up to take its place.

The Dignitaries are a garage band. This aesthetic is one they've honed to a fine craft. On the band's debut LP, Rocket Science, 15 songs blaze by in a fuzzy haze of two-minute bursts. Like the album's name might suggest, these songs are all fire and momentum - spent after a brief window, with the sulfury smell of damage left in their wake.

Having only been around for about two years, the Dignitaries have nevertheless carved a groove for themselves in the local music scene, thanks, largely, to their energetic live shows.

"We put on a good show," says lead singer Reylan Fernandez. "With a lot of people, you can have great songs, you can have great hooks and you can have the right equipment, but if you don't put on a good show at the local level, no one's going to remember you. Our little tambourines have become the little keepsake that everybody remembers us by, which helps."

The tambourines Fernandez refers to are the ones the band passes out at all of their shows, so that the drunken throngs of audience members can play along. This sensation of a roomful of people all hectically wailing away on jangly pieces of percussion serves to unite the crowd in a cacophonous clatter to match the joyous rock that emanates from the stage.

Rocket Science joins together the universal with the specific. Being devotees of the retro garage rock sound, the Dignitaries use time-tested motifs in their lyrics - dangerously forward girls; getting wasted out on the town; yearning for that moment when an electric guitar can wipe away all the troubles of the day. At the same time, the Dignitaries are fiercely local, which also reflects in songs like "Lusty Lady" and "Titlow Pts. 1&2," the latter of which is a surfy ode to a particularly good place to get lost at on a sunny day.

On "Titlow Pts. 1&2," as in other places, Reylan Fernandez busts out the totally silly and unnecessary - yet strangely satisfying - theremin. It's a nice touch that smacks of the giddy joy with which the Dignitaries approach their music. One can vividly picture Fernandez stumbling across the outmoded early electronic instrument at a garage sale or a thrift store and thinking, "That is the coolest thing I've ever seen. I must have it." There's a kitchen-sink mentality with the use of the theremin that helps to lighten the record.

Asked how the Dignitaries aim to stand out in a region so full of garage bands, Fernandez says, "There are a lot of different types of bands in this area that are in the same vein, but I mean, it's Washington. The Sonics came from here. It's nice to be part of that."

Long looms the shadow of the Sonics.

But if it means we get to enjoy bands like the Dignitaries, then it's fine by me.

Dignitaries CD release show

with Panama Gold, the Riffbrokers
Friday, June 24, 8 p.m., $5, Cover TBA
The New Frontier Lounge, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma
253.572.4020