Big D and the Kids Table

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 2. The Firebird, 2706 Olive Street.

Nov 25, 2009 at 4:00 am

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The phrase "ska is dead" has been uttered so often by scenesters desperate to distance themselves from their checkered-shoe-wearing past that it's turned tongue-in-cheek and become the namesake for an annual tour proving just the opposite: Ska is a vibrant subgenre worthy of your attention once more. The Boston septet Big D and the Kids Table played the first-ever Ska Is Dead tour back in 2004 and hasn't stopped spreading its rocksteady gospel ever since. The band's sound has morphed from ska-punk (2004's How It Goes) to traditional Two-Tone (2007's Strictly Rude), and this year's Fluent In Stroll finds the group reinventing itself once more by adding in hints of new wave and '60s pop. Not everything on Fluent In Stroll works (especially live), but the band's sheer exuberance displayed as it just plays music is infectious, to say the least.