MATT DRISCOLL: SUGAR BEATS AT THE JIVE TONIGHT >>>

Music on the “experimental” side isn’t always easy to listen to. Sometimes, you have to “really want it,” as my old junior high football coach used to say â€" and that’s more than many music listeners are willing to give. Understandable, really â€" that’s why people likeMiley Cyrus exist.

Experimental music isn’t easily digested or compartmentalized. That’s the point. Most people don’t like to be challenged.

Local wonder Sugar Beats, one of a small crop of Tacoma acts reverberating within a PNW experimental scene that’s strong in Olympia and pervasive in Portland, knows this all to well. And they don’t seem to give a shit â€" which is good. The band manages to glide a course rich with boundary bashing, yet not intolerably “experimental” â€" which is also good.

Check the band at Bob’s Java Jive tonight, or on Saturday, Oct. 3 at the New Frontier if you bungle your first chance.

[Bob’s Java Jive, with Finding Fiction, Pete Stewart, Sept. 10, 8 p.m., 2102 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253.475.9843]