Furious fiddle-playing on songs like “Suicide Polka” and “Potato Chips Polka” flooded the dance tent.

The music was so infectious, people couldn’t resist grabbing their partners to do some serious polka dancing.

Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones played to a packed house at the National Folk Festival.

The Polish-style polka band, with its ever-changing lineup, has been together since the late 1950s and has recorded more than 50 albums.

Currently, the band consists of Eddie Blazonczyk Sr., Eddie Blazonczyk Jr., Dave Nigel Kurdzil, John Fomenko, Wally Dombrowski and John Pilch Jr.

With 14 Grammy nominations and an award in 1987 for “Polka Celebration,” the band is famous for originating the “Chicago style” of polka music.

Lead vocalist and founding band member Eddie Blazonczyk Sr. said he started the band because of his love for the music.

“I have made enough money playing polka music to last me my life, providing I die Thursday,” he said.

The Versatones have a following of loyal fans who proudly wore T-shirts with the words “Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones, shaken, not stirred.”

“It is kind of funny depending where we are at,” Eddie Blazonczyk Jr. said. “We saw some folks here that we saw earlier from New York.”

He said the band hits many festivals and decided last minute to make the trip to East Lansing’s final year hosting the National Folk Festival after playing a gig in Frankenmuth the night before.

“Between Memorial Day and Labor Day it is a lot of state fairs, folk festivals and the major polka festivals,” he said.

The Versatones write their own songs as well as cover Cajun and Tex-Mex songs as polkas.

“There is a lot of old Polish-style polka music that was cut in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s that we have covered and updated it, evolved it,” Blazonczyk Jr. said.

Trumpet player Rich Kois has been with the band for the past two years. He said he made up his mind when he was a kid to play with the Versatones.

Drummer John Pilch Jr. has known Blazonczyk Jr. since he was a boy.

Pilch said meeting different people and traveling is all part of playing in the band.

“You see different areas, the different people you meet, you get to know them better,” he said. “They will come out to see you’re playing if you’re in the area.”

Kois said he loves the friendships they make and the enjoyment they provide for the audience. Trumpet, clarinet and violin player Wally Dombrowski said the folk festivals are places of learning as well as fun.

“You get to expose the polka music to a little bit different audience,” he said.

Dombrowski said many people who don’t attend “polka functions” might be influenced by stereotypes.

“When they hear a band like Eddie, they say, ‘That’s polka music,’” he said. “A lot of people have this thing where (they think) it’s lederhosen and up-tempo.”

Fans of the Versatones know better than to have these stereotypes.

Nick Koryluk traveled from Hicksville, N.Y., to catch the Frankenmuth and East Lansing shows. He has been enjoying the band’s music for 15 years.

“He has a lot of followers,” Kroyluk said. “When they play in Champion, Pa., you should see it, there are thousands and thousands.”

It wasn’t just longtime fans who loved the concert. The band found some new ones too.

Jackson residents Pauline and Lawrence Zdaknowitz managed to grab seats in the first few rows just before the crowd showed up.

“I enjoyed the music and I enjoyed the young people out there showing each other how to dance,” Pauline Zdaknowitz said.

Shaun Byron can be reached at byronsha@msu.edu.