“God’s Favorite Band” will be playing right here in St. Louis, tonight at the Off Broadway.

At least that is how Austin’s Asylum Street Spankers are introduced on the first track of their hilarious new live album, What? And Give Up Show Biz?

The double album is an excellent review of the septet’s 14-year run as one of the best small club acts in the country. Spanker fan favorites such as “Hick Hop,” “Beer,” and “Wake and Bake” are interwoven with amusing war stories of their years spent touring in a “big, honkin’ 1954 GMC Excontinental Trailways Bus.”

The CD was recorded during a two week stint at New York’s Barrow Street Theatre. As Spanker fans know, their theatrical show is best suited to a theater or an intimate club like the Off Broadway, where the hodgepodge of washboard, dobro, harmonica, clarinet, singing saw and violin can shine.

If you go, make sure to request “Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV,” though they may call for requests to be submitted on $500 bills, depending on their mood.

The Asylum Street Spankers

Tonight (Friday), 9 PM, $20

For fans of: Acoustic blues, bluegrass, old timey jazz, Vaudeville, country, Prairie Home Companion

www.myspace.com/asylumstreetspankers