Swing comes to Hales Gym

Hales Gym was converted into a speakeasy-or some rough, non-alcoholic approximation thereof-Tuesday night, when Royal Crown Revue brought their L.A. gangster swing revival sound to Oberlin. Black and white retro-style banners of skyscrapers and roadsters decorated the walls and balloons floated up from the backs of chairs around candle-lit tables. Once the Revue took the stage, though, few people made use of chairs and tables.

Opening with "Zip Gun Bop," a song about dodging bullets, the band quickly brought the audience to its feet, giving many students a chance to try out the dance steps that they had been practicing for weeks in the basement of Burton.Swinging students made up a significant portion of the audience, but by no means all of it. Looking around the gym, one could see a mother dancing with her school-age daughter and a few folks old enough to have lived through swing the first time around, good evidence of the enduring appeal of the style.

In their performance, the Revue made no effort to downplay the traditional aspects of the music. The suits worn by most of the band members hearkened back to the heyday of swing, and they worked in classics throughout their set, beginning with the second song, "The Walkin' Blues." Many of their originals also evoked the good ole' days, particularly songs such as "Who's That Out There," about a speakeasy, and "Hey Pachuco," about the Los Angeles zoot suit riots of 1943.

Although their music is rooted in the past, the Revue is not, as singer Eddie Nichols puts it, "a sit-down dinner band." The band started about ten years ago playing rockabilly and R&B, and their live performances still have the rough power and intensity typical of those styles rather than the smooth lounge feel of some contemporary swing music. Nichols bounces and swaggers around the stage, putting on a fairly convincing tough-guy persona that adds to the band's overall impact.

RCR's instrumentalists are no slouches, either. The minimal horn section of two saxophones and a trumpet showed their skill on old standards such as Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts" as well as originals, and each of the musicians took a turn at impressing the audience with solo work accompanied by drums and bass. Probably the most impressive display of musicianship was that of drummer Daniel Glass, whose extended solo in "Hey Pachuco" inspired clapping and cheering.

After about two hours, the audience's stamina was waning, with only eight or ten couples left dancing. The Revue still had energy left, though. Their finale, a medley which closed with the theme from The Flintstones, seemed a bit out of character for a retro swing band but was enjoyable nonetheless.

Royal Crown Revue is on tour to promote their latest album, The Contender, and they can also be caught on reruns of the PBS special, "Swing Alive."

Jumpin', Jivin' and Wailin': The Royal Crown Revue brought West Coast swing to the midwestern Hales Gym on Tuesday (photo by Heidi Good)