I wasn’t sure what to expect going in but I was hopeful.
I’ve had a long history with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy going back to “my” Swingers days, and when I say “my” I mean I and a certain number of my close friends had a relationship with this movie. In a weird way it was influential, almost tangible – its comedy, its life philosophy, its proximity to the life and times of young men trying to figure out what being “young men” meant in the 90s and all that it entailed in hitting the scene and finding a girlfriend and going right on down to the little things, like not brutally and catastrophically swallowing your tongue when trying to talk to a pretty girl.
The music was a part of it too, of course. Big brassy swinging horns and crooning vocals and wild jumping jazz rhythms as though out of a beat novel and into the flesh and alive. Far different, far more alive and joyous then the 300th recitation of Stone Temple Pilots mopy grunge tripe blaring from the tired radio, at any rate.
There was that scene, near the end of Swingers, at LA’s famous Brown Derby, of course, when Mikey (Jon Favreau) finally gets the girl and they’re dancing and Trent (Vince Vaughn) and his crew are drunk and there’s Big Bad Voodoo Daddy jiving for all it's worth on “You and Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby)”:
Hey Jack...I know what your thinking
That now's as good as any to start drinking
Hey Scotty...Yeah! What's it gonna be?
A gin & tonic sounds mighty mighty good to meMan I know I gotta go
It's the same thing every time
But I don't think another drink's
Gonna make me lose my mindSo I think about my next drink
And it's you & me
And the bottle makes 3 tonight!
And there I was with my old road pal and traveling companion several years after those early New York gin and tonic days, 3,000 miles from home on a road trip to end all road trips down the East Coast and across the desert wastes of the South. We had made it to Los Angeles and found ourselves in that very Derby under the blaring sounds of that smooth-yet-exhilarating retro swing beat.
My pal, far more daring than myself, ensnared two pretty young ladies in conversation and brought them back to our table, perhaps the very table that Trent caroused at whilst cheering his pal Mikey on to go-man-go. I found myself next to a redheaded gal who, it turned out, wanted nothing to do with me but made eyes at my pal. It turned out he had made an incorrect logistical assessment and had chosen the wrong girl. Nonetheless, the two ignored Fate and made cross-conversation the whole night through as I dug the swing and tried to act vaguely writerly and not at all Nervous.
Article comments
1 - mrbenning
Very nice Eric. I've wanted to see them in concert for a long time. It sounds like they're as good as I've always expected.
2 - Eric Berlin
They were better than my highest expectations.
One element I toyed with putting in the piece but didn't: I haven't been overjoyed at their studio albums -- they haven't translated that manic swing energy to record as far as I've seen.
Definitely see them in as small a venue as possible (which I suppose is true of most bands). The House of Blues was about 1,000 people and was perfect -- any bigger would start to lose the party feel.
3 - MRBenning
Brian Setzer was much the same way. I saw him open for Bob Dylan (go figure) about 7 years ago. I was never a huge fan of his albums, but he had the crowd going crazy.
I'm sure you've seen them live, but Reel Big Fish put on a damn good show as well. They're also fortunate enough to translate to album.
4 - Eric Berlin
That's funny that you've assumed that I've seen Reel Big Fish. I've seen them live a few times and you're right: they're great. A friend of mine once scoffed that the Fish are good "for a college band." I disagree -- they're fun and they're good and they write some damn good songs. That said, I didn't like their most recent album much at all, save for "Rock 'n Roll is Bitchin'" which was fairly bitchin'.
I imagine that Setzer would fall in similar territory as BBVD. I'm not that thrilled to hear a recording of his (not that I'm turned off... just not that turned on) but I imagine a live show would be great.
5 - mrbenning
I'm not trying to be "that guy," but when I saw Reel Big Fish I was pretty excited to hear their cover of "Kiss Me Deadly" and many of their radio/more popular songs. I can't remember if they played "Sell Out," but "Beer" and "Trendy" were certainly at the show.
Any band that's willing to get on stage, have a good time, and make some off color jokes is perfectly fine in my book. Well, so long as they have the talent to rock the house.
I think I assumed you'd seen them because of a list of punk bands I saw on your site a while back. They're not necessarily punk, but even passive ska fans get into them.
6 - Eric Berlin
Ah, I see. Yeah, they're a great ska-rock band, I guess. Not really punk, though the easiest category to throw them in would be ska-punk, I suppose.
They have a great and snarky writing style that I always dug on, especially on songs like "In the Pit," where they call out drunk asshole frat boys who wear wife-beaters and, we are told, "punch and kick" whilst in the pit. Groupie alterno-chicks don't get off easy with them either.
"Trendy" is one of my faves of theirs -- great song, fun as hell and an awesome fast-paced beat.
7 - Temple Stark
Eric, the pickings were a little slim for a mn scanning the category (me) but regardless I would have moved this up to Advance.net except that ... ... Wait, I did.
To Advance.net which collectively is read by hundreds of thousands per week. The link there is just to the Cleveland site.
8 - Eric Berlin
mn ?