Zydeco Tunes Will Get You Jumping

How hot is the young zydeco sensation Geno Delafose?

So hot cartoonist Lynda Barry drew a comic strip for him.

“The name of the band is the Eunice Playboys,” she wrote in the persona of her gawky, star-struck little-girl alter ego, “and they might go by your town and you might stand in front and you might try seeing how long you can look at Geno’s face without screaming from the beauty you might try seeing how long you can hear that music without you getting a wild jumping shouting banging in your body that for the Eunice Playboys is just normal.”

And you might know Barry’s taste in music is pretty darn good. As long as the music is real the musicians give a hoot.

Of course, not everyone will have the same reaction as Barry to Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie (the name of the band has changed) - but odds are if you bother to catch them tonight at the Davenport Hotel you will come away a believer.

Even if you don’t stand down front and scream for the terrible beauty of Delafose’s face.

Delafose isn’t new to this game - he’s been onstage since he was 7 and he’s 24 now - but he is new to the bandleader role. Delafose played in his father’s band - the Eunice Playboys - since he was 7. When his father died last year, he inherited the band.

Delafose began his musical career as a rubboard player, then graduated to drums and finally accordion, which he taught himself to play at age 13.

He became known for his big, black cowboy hat and for singing traditional zydeco songs in Creole, French and English.

The French Rockin’ Boogie’s repertoire stays close to the traditional waltz-time and two-step traditions, but as their name implies, they do dip into the music’s R&B soul now and again.

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GENO DELAFOSE Location and time: Davenport Hotel, tonight, 8:30 Tickets: $10, you must be at least 21 to attend