Rock music’s relationship with facial hair has always been as fickle (and cyclical) as the fads and trends of fashion. While the current battalion of alt-rock radio stars may owe a significant sonic debt to slicked up, second-wave punk, their visual “look” is considerably furrier.

Twelve years ago, when Broken City’s Craig Evans first conceived the Moustache Rock concept, facial hair of all forms was not nearly as ubiquitous as today. At that time, Evans was booking bands for the late, lamented Night Gallery and felt local bands were taking themselves a tad too seriously (imagine that!).

“I think indie rock had kind of painted itself into a corner at one point in the 1990s,” Evans says. “It was deadly serious. But when we were actually being true to ourselves, i.e. rocking out, it seemed way more real then when we were really trying.” Evans dug deep into his record collection to his earliest, dumbed-down inspirations to find the fun.

Adam Kamis of the Brenda Vaqueros agrees wholeheartedly, characterizing Moustache Rock as, “A really fun party where bands can put their pretension aside and rock out with gleeful abandon. The flip side to punk rock was listening to the boogie rock growing up. It’s like dressing up as your favourite superhero for a day.”

One of Calgary’s elder rock statesmen, Brent Cooper, of indie trailblazers Huevos Rancheros and current instrumental purveyors of coolness The Ramblin’ Ambassadors, has never really had the problem of taking himself or his music too seriously. He has his own moustache rock synonym: “Camaro Rock — something you might have heard coming out of a Camaro back in high school when Camaros were camaros and moustaches were cool.” The Ramblin’ Ambassadors promise to stay true to their instrumental selves with whatever tunes they end up covering. “We haven’t actually arrived at a final list yet,” Cooper confesses. “We had a practice last night and spent most of our time laughing.”

Although they’re one of the younger bands participating, violin-enhanced six-piece Beija Flor is playing their third Moustache Rock event this year. Still, guitarist-vocalist Stephen van Kampen seems a little bit peach-fuzzy on the concept. While the other bands cite paradigms like Ted “The Nuge” Nugent, Thin Lizzy, “Zed Zed Top” and Foghat (the single most often referenced Moustache Rock archetype), van Kampen and co. are covering three of the most revered combos in all of rock history.

“I think there is a lasting power to that music,” he says. “Rock and pop music had kind of reached a threshold, and suddenly it exploded and everyone was experimenting and exploring. The formulas were completely thrown out the window.” Huh? What the heck does that have to do with follicles, Camaros and fuzzy dice? “Even though none of us were born in the 1970s, we really appreciate the music from that era,” van Kampen continues, further muddying the bong-water. “It reminds us of our parents or something,”

Evans, though equally adept as a musician, music promoter and scene spokesman, admits to being hopelessly unable to grow facial hair of his own. He also acknowledges that Moustache Rock is no longer the much-needed release that it once was.

“It’s more of a lark,” Evans admits. “I don’t think Moustache Rock is necessarily needed now because I think the twentysomethings are more tuned into diverse stuff, and are actually having a better time. They still want to be involved, but they might get into the spirit a little differently.”