Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Proves Swing Never Actually Left, at The Vogel

Formed in the early nineties, right as grunge was taking over rock radio, this band decided the world still needed horns, zoot suits, and a reason to dance. Thirty three years later, they’re still making the case.

Reviving an entire genre against the grain of everything popular at the time takes a specific kind of confidence. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy had it in spades, and on Thursday, September 3, that same swing revival energy rolls into The Vogel as part of a touring career that’s now stretched more than three decades.

The band formed in Ventura, California in the early nineties, co-founded by singer Scotty Morris and drummer Kurt Sodergren, and quickly found a home during a legendary residency at the Derby nightclub in Los Angeles. That residency mattered enormously. In the middle of grunge’s total dominance over rock radio, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy stood in a Los Angeles club and reminded people that swing, jazz, and dixieland could still pack a room and get a crowd moving in ways heavier, more downbeat music simply couldn’t.

Three Decades of Nonstop Touring

Since that early residency, the band has barely slowed down, averaging more than 150 shows a year across a career that’s now produced sales of over two million albums. That kind of relentless touring pace is rare for any band, let alone one working in a genre as specific as swing revival, and it speaks to a level of consistent demand most acts from this era never sustained. The band’s original core lineup, including Morris on lead vocals and guitar and Sodergren on drums, remains intact, giving longtime fans a genuinely rare thing in modern touring music, the actual founding members still delivering the sound that built the band’s reputation in the first place.

The Songs That Made Swing Cool Again

Fans can expect a set built around the catalog that first broke the band into the mainstream, including “Go Daddy-O,” “Mr. Pinstripe Suit,” and “You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby),” tracks that gained wider cultural attention after appearing in the 1996 film Swingers. That soundtrack placement helped cement the swing revival as a genuine mainstream moment rather than a passing novelty, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy remains the act most directly credited with sparking it.

Why This Show Is Worth Dressing Up For

Few bands can claim to have singlehandedly revived an entire genre and then sustained it across more than three decades of near constant touring. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy has done exactly that, and a night with this band at The Vogel offers a rare chance to see swing music performed with the same original lineup and the same tireless energy that made it a genuine cultural moment in the first place. Between the horns, the zoot suits, and a catalog built entirely for dancing, this is a show worth showing up dressed for the occasion.

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Explore New Jersey covers the state’s live music scene, from genre revivalists to the touring acts filling Red Bank’s stages all season long. Check back for more concert coverage all season long.