After the Shop Boyz recorded "Party Like a Rock Star," doing so became a bit of a cliche (if Motley Crue, Aerosmith and Def Leopard hadn't already made it so.) That didn't stop the Lost Bayou Ramblers from giving it their good-natured shot on the rooftop bar atop Los Angeles' Standard Hotel, but by hair metal standards, they were rank amateurs.

They were hanging out with their wives and girlfriends, and only one member got to the point where he had to know the waitress' name, then had to use every time she came around. Staff dressed in 1970's high school pep squad attire kept bringing them beer. At the same time, other members of the Louisiana contingent in L.A. for the presentation of the first Cajun-Zydeco Grammy were visiting a guitar maker. Productive, maybe, but hardly living it up.

The afternoon was emblematic of the Lost Bayou Ramblers' place in Cajun music. They're traditional in many ways, but not dogmatically so. They explore their South Lousiana roots, but in addition to Cajun music, they include elements of western swing that the Hackberry Ramblers touched on.

Instead of treating the music as recovered remnants from the past, they're showmen, presenting it as something vital enough to make drummer Chris Courville stomp out the introduction to songs, something that animates guitarist Cavan Carruth and bassist Alan LaFleur to jump and swimg like they were playing rock 'n' roll, and something that prompts fiddle player Louis Michot to climb LaFleur's upright bass and play while standing on it.

"We're singing in French," Carruth says practically. "We've got to help people get into it."

But in the middle of the motion and post-modern looks onstage - LaFleru's rockabilly haircut and armful of tats, Michot's Beau Chene 4-H baseball undershirt - Andre Michot wears a clean white guayabera and sits still on a chair onstage as he plays accordion and lap steel, just as it was done a hundred years ago. "I play better that way," he says, but the juxtaposition with the rock 'n' roll feel marks the band as one with one foot in the past and one in the present.

Louis Michot acknowledges that today, it would be weird if not impossible for young men to make music untouched by rock 'n' roll, and it's as much a part of his background as Cajun music is. He, brother Andre and Courville have all played triangle with Les Freres Michot, but he also played in a rock band in high school with Courville.

"Everyone is traditional, but you can't keep out your influences unless you practice it. They come through naturally," Michot says. "That's the great thing about Cajun music - it changes with the time."

Besides the presentation, the modern world shows up in the rhythm. "We can never say enough about how important the triangle is," he says. "That has set the rhythm. We don't progress the melodies, but we believe in the rhythm. That's where we can be innovative and give dancers something new. It's all about what we call the 'chock,' the one-drop - chockin' on the one. From there, we can expand."

The Lost Bayou Ramblers, like the Pine Leaf Boys and many contemporary Cajun and Creole artists, are part of a new generation exploring their cultural heritage. Beausoleil, Zachary Richard and others undertook a similar project in the 1970s, but with some significant differences.

"People were scared the culture was going to start fading out so they made a conscious effort to play Cajun music," Michot says. "Now, it's alive and well, so people are taking more liberties and expanding on it. In the 1930s, '40s and '50s, there was all kind of different stuff going on. Cleoma Falcon, I don't thin she was thinking, 'I've got to preserve this music.' I think she was being totally radical and making a new statement and trying to be more worldly. She played jazz standards in Cajun French. Now it seems traditional, but back then it was probably punk rock."

The Ramblers' Live a la Blue Moon is traditional but worldly, and it was nominated for the Grammy. "When I heard them say, 'And the winner is, Live,'" Courville says, "I thought for a moment we'd won."

"We all skipped abreath," Michot says, but Terrance Simien's Grammy-nominated album was titled Live! Worldwide, and it was his album title they called. For Michot, though, the experience was worth it.

"It was amazing, and it's going to help Cajun and Zydeco musicians of today be a lot more confident of their abilities to be professional musicians and take care of themselves through music. All of a sudden, you're legit, no matter how much money you make."