TONY ENGELHART: THAT SWING >>>

So the saying goes: “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing,” and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is all about “that swing.” Since the band gained notoriety in the 1996 cult film Swingers, the 8-piece has been hard bopping in zoot suits and Fedoras for Gen X-ers who dig on big band swing. These cocktail-cool cats don’t only play high-energy jazz, they live it, and the proof is in the pudding. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy music has appeared in more than 60 films and TV trailers, and â€" through the ups and downs of the swing revival and its re-death â€" the band has persisted. Tonight the band will be at the Pantages in Tacoma. Consider it good news, because Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is money, baby. Money.

[Pantages Theater, 7:30 p.m., $29-$59, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.591.5890]

MATT DRISCOLL: A VERY TACOMA BAND, EVEN IF THEY ARE FROM RENTON >>>

Guns & Rossetti is pretty much everything a true rock and roll band should be. Led by the moderately iconic Dick Rossetti (he of Comb Over, Squirt, Root Barrels and, of course, formerly 107.7FM “The End”), Guns & Rossetti has the bases covered. Solid, crunchy riffs? Check. Tongue-in-check sarcasm? Check. Abundant swagger? Check. Songs about douchebag boyfriends and telling “your man to suck it”? Check. While Guns & Rossetti may technically call the lush and fruitful hills of Renton home, there’s just something about this band that’s so Tacoma. Perhaps this explains the band’s relationship with T-town fixtures like the Lund Bros. and Girl Trouble. And perhaps this also explains why every time Guns & Rossetti hits town â€" as they will tonight at The New Frontier â€" the results are legendary and the memories are hazy. Don’t believe me? See for yourself.

[The New Frontier Lounge, with Lund Bros, The Ilovemyselfs, 9 p.m., $5, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]

PHOTO: Myspace/shinymama

JAKE DE PAUL: DOYLE'S DOES GOOD >>>

Russ Heaton, co-owner of Doyle's Public House in Tacoma, sent this good piece of news to the Weekly Volcano World Headquarters:

LINK: Previously on Spew

STEPH DEROSA: SLOW BURN >>>

Tijuana Taco
Tostada Grande
Price: $5.97
Burn Factor: One-half out of four Molotov cocktails

OK, fine, I get it.  I know that traditional Mexican food is not spicy.  I know that it’s usually the Tex-Mex, or Americanized version that we are accustomed to that is kicked up with the spices I love so much. But I’ve had it with trying to find spice at a Mexican Restaurant. I give up.

For the second time, I’ve been told at a Mexican restaurant, this time at Tijuana Taco in Lakewood, that there is nothing spicy on the menu and that pickled jalapeños are my only tongue burning, gut blazing option. 

Pickled jalapeños? 

C’mon amigos, at least give me FRESH jalapeños if that’s how you’re gonna play me.

So for the second time in my brief Slow Burn career I’ve endured a mound of pickled jalapeños that later gives me what Pappi Swarner so cleverly refers to as “hot hole.”  If you don’t know what “hot hole” is, and you’re brave enough to find out, e-mail me and I’ll tell you.

Tijuana Taco is definitely a fresh, quaint little taco shop located in Lakewood off 100th Street that as I said before, has nothing spicy to offer. The special of the day was the Tostada Grande with a drink for $5.97. Nothing about the Tostada Grande’s spice impressed me aside from the retched hot hole I endured within the 24 hours after its consumption.

From now on, I stay away from the Mexican-themed joints.

[Tijuana Taco, 10005 Bristol Ave. S.W., Tacoma, 253.588.4621‎]

JOE MALIK: SCREWING WITH BUYOLOGY >>>

So one of the things about being unemployed is that you don’t make any money. Which sucks. Unemployment insurance, which is supposed to provide enough cash to keep you afloat, doesn’t always do the trick. Most people are drowning in debt, so savings is out.

So what’s left?

Spending less money. It’s weird, I know.

Americans don’t like to save money. They like to spend it. Our national savings rate â€" the amount of money we spend versus the amount we save â€" dipped below zero for the first time in history during the past few years. Most people’s solution to being broke is to figure out how to make more money, rather than simply spending less of it. Our voracious need to buy stuff has a lot to do with the financial disaster we’re in now. I’m not chiding you, dear reader. I’m just sayin’.

So, continually looking for the bright side of this massive financial meltdown, I’ve decided to use my predicament to develop a new habit â€" being frugal. Blissfully and extravagantly frugal. Trust me, with a little ingenuity, being poor can actually be kind of awesome.

It all begins with a cliché â€" figure out the difference between what you want and what you need. As Burroughs is fond of harping, “How long does it take a man to learn that he does not, can not, want what he wants?”

We have an overblown sense of need, largely because we are bombarded by billions of dollars worth of advertising that tells us we need stuff. Literally, there is an entire industry employing some of the brightest minds in the world. Those people are deeply aware of how your head works. They dedicate their time and energy to manufacturing desire - the so-called utopian trace â€" the promise that the next thing you buy will satisfy that sublime itch we all feel. They just never tell you that the people who are selling you the solution are the same ones who created the itch. Oh, and they don’t tell you that you’ll never really be satisfied, no matter how much you buy.

We are well trained, folks. If you don’t believe me, check out Martin Lindstrom, who wrote a book called Buyology about how to exploit awareness of how the human nervous system works to sell us crap. He’s literally written a book about how to brainwash folks to sell them stuff. He’s used the techniques in the book to help McDonald's, Nestle and Microsoft become some of the most powerful and profitable stuff sellers in the world. His most recent book “unveils the results of a….pioneering three-year, $7 million dollar study that used the latest in brain scan technology to peer into the minds of over 2,000 people from around the world.”

It’s kind of funny that Lindstrom’s book was released during a time when a lot of companies won’t be able to put his “pioneering research” into any sort of useful practice.

We have a window, those of us who don’t have enough money to sate the need created by the ambient mind-fuck that Lindstrom and his ilk are transmitting. We have a chance to learn new habits â€" habits that are healthy, habits of our own choosing.

See if you can do it. See if you can find satisfaction without spending money. It may be harder than you think. Of course, more and more of us don’t have a choice….

MICHAEL SWAN: PAPPI SWARNER’S JUKEBOX >>>

Every Friday, around 4 p.m., when the sales staff is enjoy happy hour and the editorial staff, well, is also enjoying happy hour, Weekly Volcano Publisher Pappi Swarner cranks his computer speakers and plays ‘70s pop tunes off YouTube. It pisses off The Steno Pool because he says crap to them like, "Are your legs tired? Oh, well, I'm not surprised; your calves are almost comically muscular."

He drinks.

Today, he’s looping Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting.” Lots of crash and bang noises behind his closed door.

Oh no. There he goes. He's headed toward The Steno Pool. Not good.

JAKE DE PAUL: SATURDAY FOOD LINKS >>>

Farmers markets: Proctor and Gig Harbor open today.

Could be good news for Cans in downtown Tacoma.

Alt-bev bar coming to downtown Tacoma.

The best pasta you never had.

Today’s South Sound Special

The Asian Pacific Cultural Center hosts a Korean Tea Ceremony today at the Fircrest Community Center beginning at 7 p.m. The cost is $10. Reserve your space at 253.226.2742.

Taste Wine Today

Wine tasting, noon to 5 p.m., Tacoma Wine Merchants, 21 N. Tacoma Ave., Tacoma, 253.779.8258.

Wine tasting, 1-4 p.m., $5-$7, Swing Wine Bar, 825 Columbia St. S.E., Olympia, 360.357.9464.

Wine tasting, 2-5 p.m., Wine Bank, 7017 27th St. W., University Place, 253.564.1101.

Wine tasting, 1-6 p.m., Wildside Wine, 608A S. Oxford St., Tacoma, 253.565. 0811.

Wine tastings, noon to 4 p.m., free, Madsen family Cellars, 2825 Marvin Road N.E., Olympia, 360.438.1286.

Wine tastings, 1-5 p.m., $5, Medicine Creek Winery, 947 Old Pacific Highway S.E., Olympia, 360.701.6284.

Wine Tastings, noon to 4 p.m., complimentary, Corkscrew Cellars, 116 E. Stewart Ave., Puyallup, 253.770.9463.

Wine tasting, noon to 6 p.m., complimentary, Walter Dacon Winery, 50 S.E. Skookum Inlet Road, Shelton, 360.426.5913.

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

MICHAEL SWAN: HUGE PARTY TONIGHT >>>

When people think of hotspots for house music, drum 'n' bass and its followers, a few joints come to mind. Turnmills. The Warehouse. The Haçienda. Paradise Garage. But Freighthouse Square?

Yes, at least tonight.

Matt Eklund of Pacific Fusion Productions and Dave Curtis of South Sound Collective â€" the maestros who brought the element-based party “Fresh Air” at the Robert Daniel Gallery in January â€" will light a spark under the Freighthouse Square when they present “Playing With Fire” tonight. Held in the Rainier Room, the two producers will synchronize visuals with music â€" 10 DJs, 15 local artists, fire dancing, jugglers, stilt walkers and a fashion show â€" for full fiery, sensory stimulation.

Read an interview with the two producers here.

Discover more about the fashion show and visuals here.

[Freighthouse Square, Saturday, April 4, 9:30 p.m., 18+, bar with ID, $7-$10, Rainier Room, 430 E. 25th St., Tacoma]

BOBBLE TIKI: TODAY IS THE DAY >>>

Has there ever been a more appropriately titled music festival than the one set to engulf downtown Tacoma today and tonight?

The festival Bobble Tiki speaks of, of course, is the Gray Sky Blues Music Festival, which kicks off directly after this weekend’s Tacoma Daffodil Grand Floral Parade and will fill several venues in the heart of the city with topnotch blues, including The Swiss, the Harmon, Cutter’s Point Coffee, urbanXchange and The Hub. Organized by the Tacoma Events Commission and folks involved with the South Sound Blues Association, the Gray Sky Blues Music Festival seems destined to provide everything its name suggests â€" though those in attendance could likely do without the clouds.

To read the full story, click here.