Boogaloo Swamis: live at Passim Coffeehouse /from the Boston Phoenix

It's hard to remember the days in Massachusetts when coffee houses often showcased a more rowdy group of Boston performers. The old Club 47 offered a mixed bag of folk revelers from the Charles River Valley Boys to blues singers like Junior Wells and Muddy Waters. Because of a well hyped roots renaissance, local concert promoters in Massachusetts have been luring away both high-priced ensembles and seasoned folk stars, leaving the coffeehouses in MA with a shrinking number of quality singer-songwriters. In an admirable attempt to stalk some new game, the Passim promoters tossed in a wild card by booking the Boogaloo Swamis, a five piece band of local eclectics performing Cajun/zydeco and Roots Rock dance music. Less selective than native Louisiana purveyors of those styles, like Steve Riley and Beausoliel, the Swamis spliced in enough blues rave-ups and plain rock and roll to re-create the Cambridge MA make-shift-dropout mode of the Holy Modal Rounders and Jim Kweskin's Jug Band.

On stage at Passim, washboard-clad Mickey Bones led his quintet through a smorgasbord of bayou standards, upbeat zydeco, country crossovers, and saucy blues stomps. Accordion and fiddle twirled Mardi Gras sounds behind great new songs and rejuvenated warhorses. Ever true to real tradition, the Boogaloo Swamis frequently disassembled and rearranged zesty blues tunes. They hit their peak when Bones took a deadpan tenor turn on Little Feat's "Rocket In My Pocket" with fiddle slithering over low accordion drones. If the folkies in Massachusetts begin to adopt more renegades like the Boogaloo Swamis, coffeehouses everywhere in Boston MA may start widening their dance floors and start sneaking rum into the hot cider.