big bad voodoo daddy

H and I don't go see live music all that often - unless it's during the day at a festival or something - I don't like the crowds and generally speaking, H doesn't like to stay up that late.  But we'd seen a couple of songs from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's set at a festival at Liberty Park last summer and when we saw that they were coming to the Sandy Amphitheater, we thought that might be a fun show to see.  And oh yes, it was!

The Sandy Amphitheater is a great, open-air venue.  At capacity it holds 2,750 people:  966 seats close to the stage and a lawn that will hold 1,800.  There's a snack bar (no alcohol); the restrooms are big and clean; and the whole place is landscaped quite nicely, nestled into the hillside at 9400 South and 1300 East.  Our seats were on the east side, about seven rows up from the stage.  It was a little loud, so close and sitting right in front of a set of speakers, but it was nice to be close enough to see the musicians' faces.

BBVD, just gettin' into the swing of things

The Big Bad Voodoo Daddy puts on a dang-good show.  They're a nine-member swing/jazz/Dixieland/big-band band: lead singer/guitarist, pianist, stand-up bass, drummer, two trumpets, two saxophones and a trombone.  The guys have been together for nearly twenty years and they still look like they're having a blast, wearing their zoot-suits and playing the heck out of their instruments.  The music is infectious: I was chair-dancing from the moment they started playing - and H was tapping his toes throughout.  Their most recent album is apparently a tribute to Cab Calloway, so a lot of what they played were arrangements of songs from the 1920s and 1930s: the Calloway Boogie, Minnie the Moocher, Reefer Man, The Jumpin' Jive, etc.  By the end of the second set, even the staid Utahn audience had gotten out of their seats and rushed the stage to dance.  I don't think I've ever seen a group with such a random sense of rhythm, but they were having fun and that's what matters.

We'd absolutely go see BBVD again if/when they come back to the greater SLC area.  And we'll go back to the Sandy Amphitheater too sometime - music out in the open air is the way to go.