Big Bad Voodoo Daddy brings the swings through Lawrence

February 27, 2023

Chris Ortiz,

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. // photo by Chris Ortiz

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy brought their nine-piece swing band though Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS on a cold and very icy night last Friday.

The band, who formed back in the grunge music days of 1993, are celebrating their 30^th year together, with all original members. Scotty Morris, lead singer and guitarist of the group, apologized for not coming to Lawrence since 1998. The crowd quickly corrected him by saying that the last time the band had been through was in 2010, when they stopped at the Lied Center at the University of Kansas.

The strange thing about this show is that the entire Hall was seating only, with fold out chairs taking up the entire lower half of the theater. This left no room for what I thought would be another attraction of the night: swing dancers. This is not to say that no one was actually dancing, but they were pushed back to the back of the Hall, all the way back to the stage left side of the back, close to where the merchandise was located. Yet, the audience was still dancing in their seats when the band’s hits like “Jumpin’ Jack” and their cover of Cab Calloway’s “Minnie The Moocher” were played.

All photos by Chris Ortiz (Instagram: @fastboyent).

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy