Singer Lizzy Shapiro, who fronts the hip Los Angeles band Lizzy & the Triggermen, feels that swing music is anything but a relic from the past. “I’m really drawn to the subversiveness of it. It’s born out of needing to find joy in tough times, so there’s an interesting tension about it —the songs are about serious topics, but the music makes you want to dance. So even though some of our songs were written 100 years ago, to me it’s edgy and current and relevant.”

Hardly a polite throwback, the Triggermen are a full-throttle, ten-piece band, with Shapiro as a strong and sultry frontwoman. The set might include anything from vintage standards to originals, to Britney Spears and Strokes songs (Yes, they do a swing version of “…Baby One More Time”). They even have a trombone player who worked with Benny Goodman before his death in 1985. After stirring plenty of attention at home, the band is on its first national tour, making its Boston debut at the City Winery tonight.

Shapiro’s musical roots are actually close to Boston. “I fell in love with live performing at age four and a half, doing a production of “Annie” for Chelsea Community Theater. I ended up singing opera in Charlestown and later at Tanglewood.” But she realized she wasn’t cut out to be an opera star. “I had a bit of a hiatus, because I came to realize I was never going to be one of those fabulous, tubercular heroines who sing a dramatic high note and then drop dead. Basically, I was facing a lifetime of playing Mozart shepherdesses, which didn’t sound quite as cool.”

She went onto a successful career in Hollywood as a screenwriter and actress. But music came looking for her when she thought she was done with it. “One problem is that I have an old-fashioned voice and couldn’t find a context for it. But a friend of mine was having a 1920’s themed wedding and she asked me to sing, so I picked an obscure song (recorded by Annette Hanshaw in the 20’s) called ‘If You Want the Rainbow, You Must Have the Rain.’ It started raining at her wedding, just as I was singing, so that was my big lightbulb moment. I didn’t even know how to do it, but in that moment I became committed to putting together a vintage sounding swing band.”

That’s also where she found herself as a performer. “Lizzy onstage is a persona, but it’s closer to the real me than I am in everyday life. I come from the opera world so I love drama — and it seems our audience feels the same way, because they come to the shows in incredible outfits. We don’t have an opportunity for girls to dress up and play pretend.” And she doesn’t mind giving a spin to the sexual politics in the older songs. “What I initially fell in love with was the strong women singers — Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald. But of course most of those songs were written by men, and what was edgy then might not be edgy now. There’s so much that tells women to tone themselves down, and I like to push the other way.”

Since forming this band she’s gotten as deeply into vintage jazz as she was into opera. “There’s so much incredible music that has fallen through the cracks, so I have been passionate about finding those tunes and giving them life. I wouldn’t say I’m a musicologist, but I do enjoy going down YouTube rabbit holes.”