Group reprises grand Daddy of all good times.

Byline: LEWIS TAYLOR The Register-Guard

It's been two years and two Eugene Celebrations since the Cherry Poppin' Daddies launched an ill-fated tour to promote their second major label release, "Soul Caddy." And yet, the experience remains vivid in the mind of Steve Perry, singer, guitarist and songwriter for the Eugene octet.

` `Soul Caddy' took a long time to make, and then the label didn't really put anything behind it,' Perry said, speaking by phone from his home in Eugene. `It was sort of disappointing.

`We went out on tour and most people saw us as a swing band because of the success of `Zoot Suit Riot.' We felt this tension to be something we weren't.'

As any good Daddies fan knows, swing is just one facet of the punk-soul-funk-ska-rock band. But the double platinum success of "Zoot Suit Riot" made it nearly impossible for the group to avoid being typecast.

Even today, years past the height of the swing revival, Perry said some audiences still look surprised when the band doesn't come out wearing baggy, pinstriped suits.

If any audience is able to appreciate the full spectrum of the Daddies' music, it would be a Eugene one - even though the band's lewd name has long been a source of local controversy.

Two years after its last Eugene Celebration performance, the group will return to the Fifth Avenue Stage for a Sunday afternoon set that should feature not just "the song" (`Zoot Suit Riot') but also some of the band's more obscure favorites, from the days when "swing" was still just a verb to most people.

"It's just kind of weird when you're out touring and playing all different sorts of stuff and then suddenly it all becomes about one song," Perry said. "That's the nice thing about playing in Eugene; there's a greater percentage of people who see us and understand what we do."

In the pre-"Zoot Suit" days, the Daddies were doing songs with titles such as "Lifeboat Mutiny" and "Flovilla Thatch vs. the Virile Garbage Man," a tune that Perry isn't afraid to admit was simply about "boobs."

"It's not one of our more highbrow moments," he explained.

After nine years of lowbrowing it in small clubs in Eugene and across the country, the Daddies found themselves in the right place at the right time. The group released "Zoot Suit Riot" in 1997 - just as a swing revival was beginning around the country.

By 1998, the video for "Zoot Suit Riot" was in rotation on MTV. The group had signed on for the WARPED tour and was appearing on `Late Night With David Letterman.'

To take full advantage of the swing storm swirling around them, the Daddies continued to tour and postponed the release of a follow-up album. When Perry refocused on the record 18 months later, he found that many of the songs had grown stale and were in need of rewriting.

Finally, after months of reworking the music, the group released "Soul Caddy" in 2000. It was a somewhat jumbled collection of songs that added Motown, jazz and glam rock into the group's seemingly bottomless mix of influences.

With little support from its record label (Mojo/Universal), the Daddies' "Soul Caddy" tour failed to draw big crowds, and the road trip was cut short. After consulting with the members of the group, Perry decided to take some time off.

`There was a split in the band about what to do, and my position was, `I'm tired and I need to do something else,' ' Perry recalled.

"We had been playing like 310 gigs a year, and I just burned out and I wanted to do something for myself. For the first time in my life, I had some money and I wanted to travel."

Perry's travels took him to Europe, Greece and New York City, where he lived briefly in order to be closer to his family. Meanwhile, the other members of the band went to work on other projects.

Drummer Tim Donahue found employment with Swedish guitar-shredder Yngwie Malmsteen. Tenor saxophonist Shawn Flannery moved to Los Angeles. Bassist Dan Schmid and keyboardist Dustin Lanker teamed up as the Visible Men.

Ultimately, Perry was drawn back to Eugene. Nearly 20 years after dropping out of the University of Oregon, he began taking classes at the college this past spring in the hopes of completing a degree in biology.

"It's kind of a little weird to be the aged guy among the kids," said Perry, now 38. "I'm like a geek, so I get really into it.

`I sit in the front row and do all the readings ... not like the first time I went to school, when I was just thinking about booze and broads."

Earlier this year, Perry received a favorable offer for the Daddies to play at the Festival at Sandpoint in the Idaho panhandle. He ran the idea by the other members in the group, and before long, gigs in Boise, Portland and Eugene also appeared.

"One of the things I realized during my time off is how much I missed being in the band with the guys," Perry said. "I think I needed a break in order to appreciate the human side of it."

Along with Perry, Lanker, Schmid, Flannery and Donahue, the Daddies 2002 lineup includes Jason Moss (lead guitar), Dana Heightman (trumpet and trombone) and Ian Early (alto and tenor saxophone).

Perry said there are currently no plans for the Daddies to record another album together or go out on tour, but he didn't rule out either as a possibility down the road.

"Whatever we do, it's gotta feel good," Perry said. "There's no need for us to be slogging away and doing 300 dates a year and feeling like we're working in a coal mine anymore. ...

`Now, it's kind of like we're getting to know each other again and seeing if it feels good, and it has so far. The two gigs in Idaho were fun. We'll see where it goes from there."

CAPTION(S):

The band's swing-revival costuming may be a thing of the past, but Steve Perry will still be out front when the Cherry Poppin' Daddies close down the Eugene Celebration's Fifth Avenue Stage on Sunday