It's not often that a band composed of stock characters can be a successful live act, so one that boasts "The Mysterious Lady," "The Tiger" and "The Skipper" — all, of course, in costume — might make a newcomer think the shtick is more enjoyable than the music.
But The Bombay Royale, an 11-piece Australian band making its U.S. debut at globalFEST, seems happy to evoke memories of everything from the Village People to formulaic Bollywood romances of the 1970s (in which the music was anything but formulaic). The group crams vintage Indian film music, 1960s surf tunes and blazing horns into a set of sly covers and wry originals — all tailor-made for a screwball caper flick that's yet to be shot.
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