Every time you worry that If Bears Were Bees are becoming a little too precious, they go and do something fucked up, like on "I Don't Know What I Expected," which ends with a rousing chorus of people singing, "I've been making jokes about my dead friends!" This subverting of expectations is ostensibly what If Bears Were Bees are all about, really. They're about taking you to that saccharine cliff that looms over twee waters and pulling you back at the last moment. And even when they're being a little too sweet, the propulsive catchiness of the tunes is hard to deny, and even harder to resist. When you name a song "In Dog We Trust," you'd better have some damn good hooks to back it up - which If Bears Were Bees has in spades. 

[The New Frontier Lounge, with Tallest Tree, Skinny People Kissing, Valerie Warren, 8 p.m., $5, 301 E. 25th St, Tacoma, 253.572.4020]