As far as fads go neo-swing was a doozy.
The era was ripe. The ’90s were lurching toward a new millennium and the dying growls of grunge were dispersing like the gun smoke from antihero Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994.
Coast-allied Gangsta rappers were posturing each other to death. The looming millennial changeover was inspiring prophecies of doom from cyber-nihilists and fanatical crazies of all religions.
Pop culture was awash in dread.
People needed swing. They needed to dance with each other again. They needed to dress up spiffy, put on a little lipstick and dance, dance, dance like they did back when the world teetered on the brink of its second all-out war.
Swing sprung after a winter of discontent. It was time for some romance.
It was time to dance on the apocalyptic post-grunge graves.
So swing nights sprouted up wherever there were able-bodied hipsters and a record player.
Templates for the trend came from flicks such as the 1930s-set Swing Kids and the charming 1996 indie hit Swingers, which revealed a hip L.A. scene of retro fashion, nouveau swing bands, old-school cocktails and slick partner dancing. The film’s hero, a downtrodden wannabe actor named Mikey, got the girl in the end because he could jive.
Swing revival bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies flaunted Zoot suits, fedoras and horn sections and were rewarded for their retro cool with major recording contracts.
Even the classic crooners were seeing their sound come around again. Sinatra hadn’t been this hot with twentysomethings since his two-year marriage to barely legal Mia Farrow in 1966.
Closer to home, the Vancouver area’s swing scene blossomed at the Blue Lizard Cocktail Club, the Hotel Linden and other venues. Students flocked to swing nights at both UBC and SFU.
Whistler had a nouveau swing scene of its own in the last years of the decade – an initiative of local music promoter Rick Flebbe who presented nights at the Garibaldi Lift Co. and Buffalo Bill’s.
Blue Lizard dance instructors came to town regularly. Hipster California bands Acme Swing, the Royal Crown Revue, Steve Lucky and the Rumba Bums, and neo-cabaret act Lee Press-On and the Nails all made the trek up the Sea to Sky Highway, along with more homegrown acts like Vancouver-based lounge-swingers The Colorifics.
Flebbe had embraced nouveau swing with vigour.
"When this little revival happened it was so cool," he said, recalling images of swing dancers in the street in front of Vancouver’s refurbished Vogue Theatre and a retro-styled capacity crowd at Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s show at the Commodore.
Then came the sign of both the subculture’s height of success and impending doom – the iconic 1998 "khakis swing" commercial for mainstream fashion house Gap which featured prepped out cookie-cutter models dancing to Louis Prima’s swing-era classic Jump, Jive and Wail.
The scene’s underground cool was waning. The writing was on the wall and it didn’t take long.
"It’s hard to believe that it came in so big like that, so quickly, and then it was gone," Flebbe said.
Fickle pop culture started looking elsewhere for cool and many bar owners were happy to say goodbye since the swing crowds generally eschewed excessive alcohol purchases in order to perform their nimble and increasingly technical dance moves.
Swing nights diminished and only a dedicated few were left to notice. The Latin dance craze was taking its place and the Lindy-hoppers moved on to salsa.
Flebbe’s take on the whole thing is that nouveau swing was destined for a short run since it was limited from the start by its era-specific roots.
"It came in like gangbusters but it kind of fizzled because you couldn’t really take swing music another step further," he mused. "It had already been done and that became rock ’n’ roll.
"I don’t see any reason for it to come back again," he added. "I wish I could be more positive."
Another full-fledged swing craze matching the enthusiasm of the late ’90s does seem farfetched. But all is not lost. The scenesters may have moved on but the hardcore dance aficionados, the ones who were in it for the love and not just the look, are still around.
One of them, Jason Warner, runs the Suburban Swing dance group in Abbotsford.
The five-year-old organization teaches basic six-count East Coast Swing and runs workshops for the increasingly popular and more advanced eight-count Lindy-Hop and other more challenging swing dance forms.
The group also hosts Sunday night dance events in Abbotsford that draw between 100 and 150 regulars, said Warner.
Suburban Swing dancers have been recruited as special skills extras for period piece film work and for performances at the PNE and opening reception events.
A Corrections Officer by day, Warner says he began dancing as a way to rehabilitate after knee surgery. He came in at the height of nouveau swing’s popularity and has refused to let go.
He admits the current swing scene is a shadow of what it was in the past decade. Nevertheless, it does exist. "Revival" is too strong a word, but as of late Warner says he has noticed increasing numbers of dancers at Suburban Swing events with an average participant age of 20-21.
Co-operation, he says, is key to keeping whatever scene there is alive. He’s not out to compete with other swing nights, such as Fat City in Langley on Fridays and Jungle Swing Saturday nights at the Legion on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. He’d rather they all succeed.
The low alcohol consumption of swing dancers doesn’t faze him either. In fact, Suburban Swing nights are alcohol-free and all ages.
"There’s no drinking, no smoking in any of the clubs. Just straight dancing and it seems to work," he noted.
Warner also says the music seems to draw people to the events almost as much as the dancing right now. Retro sounds are hot; just check out the current crop of sexy, young, music video-making, old-style crooners such as Toronto’s Matt Dusk and Vancouver’s Michael Buble, flaunting a laid back, lounge sound that is a close cousin of the rollicking dancehall swing bands.
As far as the look, Warner says it’s not all that important in the contemporary swing scene. But with fashions from this past summer celebrating the 1950s dirndl skirt and Minnie Mouse shoes, retro style seems to be going another round as well. Who knows if the current trends will inspire hipsters to look back a bit further and rediscover the ’30s and ’40s.
Certainly Flebbe and those of his mindset aren’t holding their breath.
But as for Warner and those of his mindset, it’s irrelevant.
They don’t need a craze. Regardless of raging mainstream popularity or quiet underground events under the pop culture radar, he and others like him will keep dancing through it all.
Suburban Swing will be in Whistler this weekend as part of Tourism Whistler’s Jazz, Blues and Swing festivities. Look for Warner and his partner Karen Neale performing swing dance demonstrations to music by Vancouver rockabilly jive band Cousin Harley at various locations throughout the village.
Jazz ensembles lesismore and the Jeff Van De Mark Trio, blues musician Wes Mackey, and dancers from the Whistler Dance Academy will also be performing throughout the weekend.
For more information call the Whistler Information and Activity Centre at 604-938-2769.
