MINING ‘60s GOLD

If you’ve somehow forgotten just how many great soul and R&B; records the ‘60s produced, the San Francisco-based group Big Bang Beat is required listening. The band reminded a small but vociferous audience Tuesday at the Coach House what a musical gold mine the decade was. Even though the group’s stance casts no new light on familiar and available songs, Big Bang Beat virtually defies you not to get caught up in them.

The five-woman, nine-man band churned out gloriously infectious renditions of more than two dozen signature hits of Aretha Franklin, Jr. Walker, Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett, the Phil Spector girl groups and several other Motown/Memphis rock-soul acts.

On the surface, Big Bang Beat (which plays the Palomino tonight) would appear to subscribe to the basic “shut up and dance” school of rock philosophy. But if there is a deeper message, it’s the not-so-subtle suggestion that the songs everyone danced to in the ‘60s offered considerably more melodic texture and full-bodied arrangements than most of today’s drum machine-heavy dance records.