A thin line separates the Squirrel Nut Zippers from the swing bands who've either broken up or have been dropped by their labels since the swing salad days of the mid-'90s.

        These bands all share common ground beyond stupid band names. Their musicianship is good because they're made up of guys who played in the high school jazz band. But the songwriting always stinks. So novelty and gimmick serve as the stocks in trade to get ahead of the pack.

        It's how the Squirrel Nut Zippers, who played Bogart's Sunday night, separate themselves from those other woeful bands, and it's how they've so far avoided an end that can't be too distant.

        Their proudest novelty item is Katharine Whalen, a singer whose gender alone makes the band a breed apart from all the male-only swing bands, but whose Billie Holiday stylings sink the band to the darkest depths of nostalgia. This was the last night of the band's tour, and it could be heard in her singing as her voice disappeared when she went to hit the high notes.

        Their greatest asset on this night was the brass. Where your average swing-band horn section plays generic charts, these guys were blowing all over the place, each independently from the other three, dixieland style, providing one of several elements that lent a distinct New Orleans feel to their brand of swing.

        The band marched onto the stage playing horns, bass drums and percussion, pumping out a second-line rhythm and mugging zanily for the audience, like a cross between the Rebirth Brass Band and the cast of The Real World: New Orleans. At show's end they marched out the same way, this time coming into the crowd and doing a lap around the floor.

        Local band the StarDevils, playing only its fourth-ever show, opened. Guitarist Edwin Vardiman and drummer Tom Huesman both came over from the recently disbanded group the Brand, bringing bits of their old band's country repertoire into the StarDevils' rockabilly.

        The crowd appreciated their faithful reenactment of 1950s rock 'n' roll, and at least one guy in the crowd appreciated it when Mr. Huesman traded his brushes for sticks and the band rocked out to Doc Pomus' “Boogie Woogie Country Girl.”

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