Pig Out music has grown as big as the food

Here are a few tasty items to sample at the 30th annual Pig Out in the Park: Hot Buttered Rum, The Other White Meat and a nice, crisp Cracker.

And those are just the bands.

You can also sample food from 42 booths, including most of the usual Pig Out favorites: barbecued ribs, stir-fried noodles, gyros, teriyaki and roasted corn on the cob.

And if you want to take a tour of the culinary world, that’s easy enough to do:

Japan: Kochi Teriyaki, Sidewok Teriyaki and Lylo’s.

Greece: Azar’s and Euro Gyro.

India: Taste of India.

Mongolia: Kang Mongolian Grill.

Thailand: Seely Thai Cuisine.

Vietnam: Pho Van Bistro.

Baja California: Baja Babes and Baja Southwest Grill.

Louisiana: Gumbo Goddess.

Hawaii: Huli Huli Chicken.

And, of course, you can also visit exotic places like Philly and Jersey (Philly Bros./Fry Guys and New Jersey Rippers).

The top price on food items is $8.95. Many are considerably cheaper.

Those in search of adult beverages won’t have to wander too far. There will be three adult beverage gardens this year.

Meanwhile, the music has become an ever-increasing draw over the past 30 years.

This year features plenty of local and regional acts. Music booker Craig Heimbigner also has lured in performers from all over the country, including the Austin Lounge Lizards and the Tubes with Fee Waybill.

As usual, there will be two stages: the City Hall Stage, so named because Spokane City Hall provides the backdrop, and the Clocktower Stage, because the Great Northern Clocktower looms overhead.

City Hall Stage will be rocking during the entire Pig Out run; the Clocktower Stage, featuring the biggest bands, will be active during the core of the weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Here are some of the musical high points:

• The Tubes, featuring Fee Waybill – When this band arrived on the scene in 1975 with “White Punks on Dope,” it specialized in outrageous theatrical stunts and risqué live shows.

The revived version doesn’t emphasize the “costumes and the craziness,” said Heimbigner. The show will be more PG-rated than in the old days.

But he said frontman Fee Waybill remains a “heck of an entertainer.” (Clocktower Stage, Sunday, 8:15 p.m.)

• Cracker – Emerging in the early 1990s from the ashes of Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker immediately became the forerunner of a new alternative rock movement.

The group scored a number of hit songs, including “Low” and “Teen Angst” – and still has a loyal following for its mix of rock, punk and psychedelia. (Clocktower Stage, Saturday, 8:15 p.m.)

• Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real – Nelson is a stunning guitarist and a great, expressive vocalist, said Heimbigner. Genetics may have something to do with it; he’s Willie Nelson’s son.

His band, combining rock, blues and roots music, is getting plenty of good buzz. (Clocktower Stage, Friday, 8:15 p.m.)

• Austin Lounge Lizards – The Lizards bill themselves as making “satirical folk music with five part harmony.” They’re a string-band/Texas-swing hybrid, and they’re not above making fun of both genres, along with bluegrass, country and pop.

They manage to be hilarious and musically accomplished at the same time. (City Hall Stage, Monday, 6:30 p.m.)

• Trampled by Turtles – This Minnesota group is one of the nation’s top bluegrass bands. It uses the term “thrash-grass” to describe its take on the traditional banjo-fiddle- mandolin-guitar-bass sound. (City Hall Stage, Friday, 4:30 p.m.)

• Hot Buttered Rum – It began as a Bay Area acoustic string jam band, but over the years has added drums and electricity to range into world music, country and jazz.

The group travels the country in a bus that runs on recycled vegetable oil. (City Hall Stage, Friday, 8:30 p.m.)

• The Iguanas – They might be one of the sleepers of the Pig Out lineup, a New Orleans band that is “like a party on stage,” said Heimbigner.

They combine all of the sounds of their home city – swamp rock, jazz, Latin, funk and roots – into a tasty gumbo. (City Hall Stage, Sunday, 8:15 p.m.)

And here’s the beauty of Pig Out: You can listen to the Iguanas while actually slurping down a steaming bowl of gumbo.