Best Band?

After seeing the New Orleans Bingo! Show twice in the last few weeks, I wonder if it isn’t the best band in town right now. I didn’t see anybody inspire a more passionate attempt to provoke an encore at a Jazz Fest show than they did, and at the Ogden Museum’s Sippin’ in Seersucker, audiences liked Topsy Chapman’s Diana Washington set, liked the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, but stopped what they were doing for the Bingo! Show. Anyone who can engage a crowd that is not the band’s traditional audience - there were few hipsters or regular clubgoers - and turn Canal Place into a semi-intimate venue is doing a lot of things right.Â