The thing about rockabilly is that, in the hands of most bands, it's a musical dead end -- a swingin', raucous dead end, complete with pompadours, cuffed jeans and swagger, but a dead end nonetheless.

It's like punk rock never happened. Or '60s garage rock. Or The Beatles, for that matter. It's a kind of stuck-in-the-'50s version of rockabilly, which is fine. It's quaint. It's fun. It has its place among traditionalists.

But it's not what The Black Crabs are after.

"To me it seems like a trap to fall into, that revivalist mode, where you're playing the same stuff from the '50s," says Jonathan Stuart, or Johnny 7 as he's known to Crabs fans. "I'm not going to pretend that it's actually 1957."

Make no mistake: The Seattle trio, which plays the Yakima Sports Center tonight, does play rockabilly -- that wild mix of country and rock 'n' roll played by Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly and Wanda Jackson. But its sound and sensibilities have been influenced to varying degrees by acts as disparate as The Sonics, The Clash and Django Reinhardt.

"The Sonics' stuff is pure energy," Stuart says of the pioneering Northwest garage group. "If you put that and rockabilly together, it's a kind of pure-energy rock 'n' roll."

Their other influences notwithstanding, The Black Crabs have a serious rockabilly pedigree. They formed in 2005 as a backing band for Wanda Jackson, the queen of rockabilly and one of the first female rock stars back in the 1950s. Jackson had used a previous incarnation of the band for an earlier tour, but that band, The Donettes, had broken up by 2005. So this time it was just Stuart on guitar, Tom Forster on drums and Kirsten Ballweg on upright bass.

In addition to playing with Jackson -- "It's kind of weird to play with someone like that; it feels like a dream," Stuart says -- the band was given a 45-minute slot as an opening act. When the tour ended, the band didn't. It's had the same lineup since: Stuart out front, playing guitar and handling the bulk of the vocals and songwriting; Forster, pounding out the beat and alternating benign smiles and a Mike Ness-style snarl; and Ballweg, sporting cool librarian glasses that give no hint of how savagely she can attack that bass.

They've toured intermittently throughout their five-year existence and released two albums (2005's "Blast Off" and 2008's "13 Times") with another one about halfway done. They played the Sports Center last month, marching through a spirited set despite a sparse crowd. This time, with no cover charge and with the Vintiques auto show filling Yakima with potential rockabilly fans, there's likely to be a better turnout.

"To me, what's fun about (rockabilly) is you can dance to it, and it appeals to a wide range of people," Stuart says.

They were several songs into last month's Sports Center show before anyone even started dancing, something he hopes to improve on this time.

"Tell people to bring out their dancing shoes," Stuart says. "That's what we really like."

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.

If you go

WHAT: The Black Crabs.

WHEN: 9 tonight.

WHERE: Yakima Sports Center, 214 E. Yakima Ave.

HOW MUCH: Free.

ONLINE: www.theblackcrabs.com.