Unscary ‘Monsters’

It’s time for the Monsters of Swing Weekend at the Ventura Theatre, when hoofers from all over the country gather to gyrate their movable parts and show off their cool threads.

The highlight of the three-day dance marathon will be a Saturday night show by the most famous band from Ventura, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, making a rare local appearance. Swing Session will play tonight and open for Big Bad, and Swingerhead will play Sunday night.

Dancers from 17 states and three foreign countries are expected to do their swing thing, all to be transacted on newly installed dance floors that will cover three levels of the venerable venue.

And if you’re one of the three or four people who doesn’t know how to swing dance, there will be lessons from tonight through Sunday at the theater as well as at the nearby Elks Lodge and the Masonic Temple, where instructors have the knowledge to turn oak trees into young clones of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

The big deal, however, will be an appearance by those Kings of Swing, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, a Ventura band that not only got signed, but also got world famous. The band has played at halftime at the Super Bowl and appeared on the television show “Ally McBeal,” so its resume is virtually complete.

BBVD started playing locally at Nicholby’s in Ventura almost a decade ago, then took its show on the road. The group later landed a plum gig at the Derby in Hollywood and was memorable in the surprise hit movie “Swingers.”

The band has four albums of “psycho swing” music so far, and when not in Ventura, is road-tripping around the world. Andy Rowley, the well-dressed baritone sax player, discussed the band’s world.

So what’s the latest with Big Bad?

We’ve been working on some new music for another project coming out, hopefully, early next year. It’s been over a year since the last [album] came out; then we took a little break from touring. At the end of this month, we’re going to Japan, then we’re going back to Europe. This will be our second time in Europe. Last year, we made it to quite a few jazz festivals, and this year, we got invited back to a couple more. The European vibe on music is they’re into music just for music’s sake, no matter what it is.

So are there swing dancers everywhere?

No, not really. We met some kids in Austria last year. Over there, mainly it’s just a music thing and not a swing thing.

Since playing all those nights at Nicholby’s and weird gigs like the Lifeguard Festival in Port Hueneme, you guys have become quite the road dogs.

We’ve put on some miles, that’s for sure. We’ve burned through two vans. We had an engine change in one, then we had to buy another one. That one’s still kicking.

Tell me about this Monsters of Swing thing.

We’ve done two or three, then we didn’t do it for a while, but then we were in town and we got a call. We were available, so we decided to go for it. This is our first local gig in a while. We played the fairgrounds last summer, and I think we’re booked again this summer.

So what’s up with the swing thing? Is it going away?

It’s a trip, man. As far as the media hype goes--they pretty much killed it. I think they tried to make it more like the twist or something like the new craze. They hyped it up, then they brought it back down pretty much as fast as it rose. But as far as people coming out--gosh, we just did two weeks in Colorado about a month and a half ago and we sold out every show. It was probably 10% swing dancers and about 90% of the people just coming out to check out Big Bad Voodoo Daddy--the band, the music and the show they’ve heard about.

How did you guys land the Orange Bowl and some of those other cool gigs?

We did the Orange Bowl and then the Super Bowl within a month of each other. It was pretty surreal. We thought it was a joke because we played a Super Bowl party the year before, which was in a parking lot. It was sort of a pregame thing for a marketing firm, and that’s what we thought it was. We thought it would be cool to play another outside gig because we actually got to go to the game, too. I don’t think we even realized it until we had the tickets in our hands flying to Miami to play with Stevie Wonder and Gloria Estefan.

How did a band get signed out of Ventura?

It really helped us to play out of Ventura and to really commit ourselves to the road. We’d leave on a Wednesday and play until Sunday and just go as far north as we could get and do that a couple times a month. We built up a pretty good following because we were religious about getting people on the mailing list and hyping our shows and getting to areas that were within a day’s drive of each other. Fortunately, it worked out where we all had flexible jobs and we could do that. It helped get people interested in the band, plus we always sold CDs and T-shirts, which paid our expenses.

So, to a label, the band was very attractive because you had already done the work for them?

It was pretty much a no-brainer for people who wanted to sign us. Our mailing list was up to five or 10 thousand. So when we got signed, we had a built-in mailing list along with so many fans and we had sold quite a few CDs, so pretty much, the legwork had been done by us. We’re still pretty involved. We handle the Web site and the merchandise. We still sell CDs at our shows just like we always have. So it’s not like we got signed and now somebody [else] does all the work.

How many Big Bad songs are there these days?

We’ve got quite a few. We’ve got the four releases, plus we’re working on another one. There’s been a lot of television stuff and a lot of compilations. There’s a lot of stuff out there. This lineup goes back to ’92.

How would you describe Big Bad music?

We’re still trying to make it sound like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, but we’ve got a lot of influence from New Orleans--we really dig the vibe of that place, and I think that has crept into some of our new stuff. We were influenced by some Latin stuff like the Afro-Cuban All-Stars. We’ve always had a little Latin influence in our songs, so we tried to bring some of that back. We’ve got some more texture, some jazz vibe to it--we’re still playing and still incorporating the punk rock with the jazz and still trying to figure out our sound. It’s still fun.

DETAILS

Sixth Annual Monsters of Swing Weekend at the Ventura Theatre, 26 Chestnut St. Swing Session, 8 p.m. today, $15. Swing Session and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, 8 p.m. Saturday, $20. Swingerhead, 8 p.m. Sunday, $15. 653-0721.

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Lark will fly into the Garden Village Cafe across the street from Ventura College tonight for one of those free all-ages shows. The band is a quintet that claims influences as diverse as the Cowboy Junkies, Ween, Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith, Morphine and Benny Goodman.

Lark music is a blend of lounge, rock and jazz, ending up as some sort of “danceable mayhem,” “art rock” or “garage jazz.” The band has two sets of originals, punctuated by powerful female vocals and a surreal sax player.

The venue itself is smallish and brightly lighted on the inside, with a spacious patio out back, good for relaxing or studying. This eclectic venue has live music three or four times a week.

DETAILS

Lark at the Garden Village Cafe, 40 Day Road, Ventura, 7:30 p.m. today; free; 642-4015.

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Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Lee Hooker will bring his high-powered blend of boogie and blues to the Ventura Theatre on Thursday night. Also on the bill are kid guitar god Corby Yates and Guitar Shorty--at 5-foot-10, not quite as vertically challenged as his handle would indicate.

The 80-something Hooker should know the way to the Ventura Theatre--he’s played the venue many times during his endless road trip. Hooker began the first leg of his long journey when he left his Mississippi Delta home in the ‘30s and headed for Memphis, eventually landing in Detroit in the early ‘40s. His first hit was “Boogie Chillen,” a million-seller in 1948. Must be that beat.

“Back in 1932, I invented the boogie,” Hooker usually announces at his shows. He certainly has that part figured out. The boogie is rockin’ blues that make sitting no longer a viable option. Hooker has played with everyone and often, and has influenced countless bands, including the Rolling Stones and ZZ Top.

As spring training winds down and baseball season approaches, Hooker--who has been known to be late to a gig to watch one more inning in his hotel room--will be rooting for the boys in blue. “A Dodger fan? That’s me. John Lee Hooker, Dodger fan.”

DETAILS

John Lee Hooker, Corby Yates and Guitar Shorty at the Ventura Theatre, 8:30 p.m. Thursday; $33; 653-0721.

Bill Locey can be reached by e-mail at blocey@pacbell.net.