Lizzy & The Triggermen bring ‘resistance swing’ to Boothbay Harbor
Lizzy Shaps from Lizzy & The Triggermen, who will be performing Saturday in Boothbay Harbor. (Photo by Spike Marble)
Los Angeles-based Lizzy & The Triggermen is a 10-piece jazz and swing band fronted by powerhouse vocalist Lizzy Shaps. They’ll be playing in Maine for the first time on Saturday.
The band breathes sassy, charismatic and musically dazzling life into swing tunes from the Great Depression and World War II eras, alongside a handful of clever originals.
After forming the group a decade ago, Shaps coined the genre “resistance swing” as a descriptor. “I look at resistance swing as the sound and swagger of vintage big band but with the attitude of punk rock,” she said.
There’s also a history lessen embedded in the band’s interpretation of old standards. “Our ancestors were writing swing music through very similar times, and were offering people hope that these times do not last forever,” said Shaps, who added that Hitler considered swing music so threatening he banned it.
As to why she named her band The Triggermen, Shaps said, “I wanted the band name to not feel too nostalgic or sentimental, I wanted it to have a bit more of bite to it.”
“I think sometimes people assume that old music is tame and safe and sweet, and of course there’s plenty of that. But also 100 years ago people were doing drugs and writing songs about it,” said Snaps.
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Case in point, the band’s take on the 1934 tune “Sweet Marijuana” and its line “Help me in my distress sweet marijuana, please do.”
Another one of the tunes Lizzy & The Triggermen will be playing is a protest song about Hitler that Irving Berlin wrote in 1941 called “When That Man is Dead and Gone.” The video for it on YouTube has more than 1.3 million views.
Shaps said she doesn’t get specifically political during performances, but rather speaks in broad strokes about issues like economic disparity. “There is no point in asking people to pay attention to you if you aren’t going to be authentic. I think it is condescending to the audience to act like this crazy timeline we’re living in isn’t happening,” she said.
Rather than lean into cynicism, Shaps provides herself and the audience some grace.
“I need some kind of release valve, and for me that is singing about it and dancing and turning this chaos into something that’s beautiful music, and trying to reach people’s hearts because I don’t really believe that most people are on board with the craziness that’s happening,” she said.
In this instance, that release comes in the form of toe-tapping, multilayered jazz and swing songs.
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“There’s something inherently joyful about that sound, it just makes you move your body. I’m not sure what the alchemical process is, but you just can’t hear a wailing horn and not feel happy,” she said.
Lizzy & The Triggermen. The 10-piece big band make their Maine debut this weekend. (Photo by Rich Rosen)
For a taste of Lizzy & The Triggermen in advance of the upcoming concert, check out “Live at Joe’s Pub,” recorded in New York City in 2024. The album is a cornucopia of intoxicating horns, frolicking piano, a snappy rhythm section and Shaps’ warm and vivacious vocals.
For an hour and 15 minutes, the album struts along with songs like “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” from “Bye Bye Birdie,” the original “I Know a Man,” which draws its inspiration from film noir, and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from “Gypsy.”
Shaps, a Chelsea, Massachusetts, native who later moved to California after graduating from Yale, began her career as an opera singer with dreams of making it on Broadway. But with encouragement from some savvy instructors, she took a different path into jazz.
IF YOU GO:
7:30 p.m. Saturday. The Opera House at Boothbay Harbor, 86 Townsend Ave., Boothbay Harbor, $30 in advance, $35 day of show. boothbayoperahouse.com.
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Aimsel Ponti is a music writer and content producer for the Portland Press Herald. She has been obsessed with – and inspired by – music since she listened to Monkees records borrowed from the town. More by Aimsel Ponti
