Energetic Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Rocks the House With Swing Sound

Swing was always meant to be popular music, but in the hands of a Duke Ellington or a Benny Goodman or a Count Basie it could be more. It could be meaningful. It could be memorable. It could be art.

That’s a quality largely lost on the ‘90s swing revival, which tends to see the genre mainly as nostalgia and camp. So at its homecoming gig at the House of Blues on Monday, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy fittingly arrived in costume: big suits and snap-brim hats.

Fortunately, this was more than a costume party for the band, which can at least boast better playing chops than many neo-swing acts. The group drew on material from its new “This Beautiful Life” album, music that was nearly energetic and fun enough to distract from just how limited the band’s approach really is.

A song such as “Who’s That Creepin’?” came off upbeat but cartoonish, a lot closer to the crime jazz of Henry Mancini than the unstoppable big-band swing of Basie. Still, the band attracted a full house on Monday, suggesting that the unlikely swing revival is far from over.

Like many in its movement, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy arrived at swing from the rock ‘n’ roll tradition. The result is a reenactment of just one small corner of classic swing music, one that’s often closer to rockabilly than jazz. And it’s probably not the sort of thing that Ellington or even Glenn Miller be would be doing if he were alive today.