Vaud's motto: “Your soul will be saved if you dance.”

“Your soul will be saved if you dance.” This is the motto of a large stage-band that averages around 20 members at any given time. Billed as a 1930s New Orleans musical show, Vaud and the Villains was in truth started a good 1892 miles away from the source in Los Angeles in 2008, by a husband and wife: tenor saxist Andy Comeau and singer Dawn Lewis. Right out of the starting gate, they got a residency at an L.A. club called Fais Do. Imagine a Baptist tent-show revival with rock and roll, theatrics, vintage costume finery, and an overlay of some ripping NOLA street music. Festival-circuit favorites, the whole experience, dated as it may be, is a bit like having a circus side show at a rock concert. Indeed, in the beginning, according to the band’s bio, Vaud and the Villains played in a circus.

But put aside the pantomime, belly-dancing, and theatrics for a minute and think about the music. The band’s book is a collection of popular hits from the 1880s through the 1920s. In other words, ragtime. Ragtime music is as decorative as a wedding cake and has a set of rules that are lenient. This is how Vaud and the Villains are able to insinuate musical quotes from Parliament Funkadelic, etc., into their banjo-scrubbing retinue.

But the founders told a reporter that the inspiration for all of this came from Bruce Springsteen’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. Comeau said he didn’t know the songs but that he felt like he knew them, and that led to research, which eventually led to New Orleans, and that led to the starting of the band. Now, half the material is original as expressed in their downloadable collection Sin and Tonic. But as good as the music is, it’s just not the same without the flaming tuba. Must be seen to be appreciated.