MATT DRISCOLL: EVANGELICALS CLOSE OUT SQUEAK AND SQUAWK >>>

As Squeak and Squawk Music Festival co-creator Sean Alexander told me last week, his brand new musical vision â€" which has taken over The Helm Gallery and The New Frontier for the last five days â€" has a few simple goals.

“The purpose of Squeak and Squawk is to provide the local area with five days of solid and diverse programming. I would really hope to see some new faces appear during the festival,” says Alexander. “Also, we want to see people have fun and get all dorky about music.”

Seems valiant, no? Of course it does.

But it takes more than asking nicely to draw Tacoma’s music loving masses out of the woodwork. Luckily, the minds behind Squeak and Squawk don’t appear to have just fallen off the proverbial turnip truck. Along with a solid amount of word-of-mouth buzz they’ve been able to generate about their fledgling Tacoma festival, they also put together a lineup that’s been fucking amazing.

Proof of that fact is abundant, as anyone perusing the impressive list of acts that have played Squeak and Squawk can see. But it’s exceptionally clear when looking at Squeak and Squawk’s final show, at The New Frontier tonight, which will feature Oklahoma’s Evangelicals along with Portland’s Parenthetical Girls and Tacoma’s Friskey.

Hot damn. Now that’s a show.

If you’re not familiar with Evangelicals, which would make some sense considering the band hails from Norman, Okla., and has never played Tacoma before, prepare to be pleasantly surprised â€" if not completely blown away. A mix of bizarre artistry and envelope-pushing song writing â€" which often earns the band comparisons to another Norman band, the Flaming Lips â€" Evangelicals have more than a few things going for them. The indie buzz generated by the band’s two albums, ’06’s So Gone and this year’s The Evening Descends, is a good starting point for those intrigued.

Seeing the band’s performance tonight at the New Frontier should be even better.

“It does matter and it doesn’t matter,” says Evangelicals leader, Josh Jones, of the kind words the press has written about his band. “On a personal level, it doesn’t really matter. I don’t really pay much attention to that stuff.”

“Part of it is the package. Anyone who tells you it’s not is lying,” says Jones of the overall aesthetic of his explicitly artistic band. “I don’t want people to feel ripped off.”

Something tells me, at the New Frontier tonight, that won’t be a problem. But you can be the judge.

[The New Frontier, Evangelicals, Parenthetical Girls, Why I Must be Careful, Friskey, Monday, Oct. 20, 9 p.m. doors, $8, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, www.myspace.com/squeakandsquawkfestival]

Photo courtesy of Myspace