While Friends & Co. may be the premiere live music spot in Charleston, this weekend’s ante is being upped Saturday.

Charleston’s own Swampass and Hit Gone Bad will team with up-and-coming New Orleans natives Supagroup.

Formed in 2001, Swampass is comprised of Friends owner Jason Kottwitz on bass, Tommy Rue on vocals and guitar and Jake Pope on drums. The group, who are currently preparing for the release of its latest, “Weapons of Ass Destruction” in February and a subsequent tour, has built its reputation on a series of cross-country treks on which the band has opened for a veritable who’s who of rock.

Playing with Iggy Pop, The Vines, Blue Meanies, Fu Manchu and a vast array of others has not only given Swampass national exposure, but the means to book many of the bands seen at Friends on a near nightly basis.

Kottwitz said the band is a mix of punk and rock with overtones of the legendary New York Dolls and Detroit’s MC5.

With Saturday’s show, Swampass is again returning to its home turf with friends Hit Gone Bad in toe.

Hit Gone Bad, comprised of Scott Ducar on drums, Phil Manning on Guitar and Dave Gierhahn on bass, is a surf trio in the vein of The Ventures and The Safaris. The group, which formed in 1999 has gone through a lineup change since its inception. It has largely dropped the secret agent assassin motif it once sported and now, as Ducar put it, “brings the music to the kids.”

Despite the somewhat auspicious gimmicky beginnings, the band persevered and honed its California surf sound. After taking a hiatus for more than six months, the band is eager to return to the stage.

“This band has progressed like a drug habit,” Ducar laughed. “Like, in sixth grade you smoked your first joint and it was schwag, but by the time you got to high school you’re dropping killer acid. We’re like that- Bigger, better and more dangerous.”

With more than four years of experience behind the group, Manning seconded the group’s steady move into harder music while retaining the surf-rock aesthetic of Dick Dale. With the prospect of returning in Charleston and playing alongside fellow locals Swampass, Ducar said the members of Hit Gone Bad are happy to be back on its old stomping grounds.

“Friends is the only real place in town to play,” he said. “There’s the Uptowner but we’re not a cover band so playing there is out. And there’s 7th Street Underground, but who wants to play for a bunch of sober kids?”

The group released “High Speed Chaser” in January of this year and plans to continue to gig and make new music.

Rounding out the bill are New Orleans rockers Supagroup. Composed of brothers Chris and Benji Lee on vocals/guitar and guitar respectively along with Leif Swift on bass and Michael Brueggen on drums, Supagroup specializes in straightforward, no nonsense rock.

Although the members of Supagroup were unavailable for comment at press time, the band has received a great deal of positive press since releasing “Supagroup” and embarking on a subsequent touring gig with underground legends, the Supersuckers.

New York’s, “Mass Appeal” wrote Supagroup are “the aural equivalent of losing your virginity at an AC/DC concert in heaven. On really, really good dope.”

“Flagpole” said “AC/DC is only the tip of the iceberg; there are elements of the whiskey-bent and hell-bound fury of the Supersuckers and the sweaty enthusiasm of MC5 in the mix.”

That’s all incredibly heady praise for the hard-touring Louisiana natives which begs the question, how they made their way from the likes of Austin’s famed South by Southwest, and other high profile gigs, to Charleston.

“It’s kind of funny how these bands will be playing all major cities in the country, and then you find Charleston sandwiched in the schedule,” Kottwitz said.

Kottwitz said the show materialized after a meeting at the aforementioned South by Southwest when Kottwitz saw Supagroup had an open spot in its tour and asked the group to come down.

After that, Supagroup started receiving its wave of enthusiastic press and the show was merely grand serendipity.

Kottwitz explained many of the bands he brings to Friends are just as nationally known, but they manage to fly under Charleston’s proverbial radar.

“Most of the bands get great national press,” he said. “Most people on this campus don’t give a f–. They would rather complain about not having enough concerts. I’m trying to change that.”

The show starts at 9 p.m. with a $3 cover. In addition to the music, Friends will be giving away Pabst Blue Ribbon merchandise throughout the night.