Squirrel Nut Zippers, Bio Ritmo Offer Pleasant Diversions

Philip Marlowe, Jay Gatsby, Blanche DuBois and even a young Fidel Castro each could have found something familiar at the Palace on Tuesday, with the nostalgic, jazzy novelties of the Squirrel Nut Zippers paired with the salsa lounge of Bio Ritmo. North Carolina’s Zippers, an unlikely national phenom with its 1996 Cotton Club-esque escapade “Hell,” switched willy-nilly from ‘20s New Orleans or Harlem jazz clubs to ‘40s Manhattan ballrooms, while the Richmond, Va.-based opener was caught somewhere between ‘50s Nuevo York and ‘60s Havana.

The Zippers held down the musical end of things passably--but no more so. None of their chops will make anyone forget Bix Beiderbecke, and in the writing department there’s certainly not a Hoagy Carmichael in the bunch. Even with the slightly expanded scope of the new “Perennial Favorites” album, it’s still little more than a pleasant diversion.

Ditto for the lively Bio Ritmo (which plays its own show tonight at the Conga Room). Led by Havana-born Rene Herrera, the group proficiently if flatly re-creates the sound of such essential salsa forces as Tito Puente, but adds nothing. Sadly, most of the people enjoying the band would probably never think about going to see Puente himself, just as most Zippers fans would have no interest in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. But then, the Blues Brothers sold millions of records to people who couldn’t care less about Bobby Blue Bland.