June 19, 2000
Matt Mason

It was a stormy night in Lincoln, Nebraska. Here, in the heart of Big Red country, the Red Elvises made their first Nebraska appearance, a call to all Huskers and non-Huskers to strap on their best red dancing shoes and get to the Zoo Bar. A lot of great musicians come through Nebraska, stopping not in Omaha (by far the largest city) but in Lincoln, home of this famous blues club that's hosted most of the amazing bands in existence who weren't too snooty to stop in the midwest. And that's where Your Favorite Band came to showcase the humor, the pathos, the unbridled rock n' roll of Siberian surf guitar.

I showed up an hour early, finding a disappointingly small crowd. But there was Igor, Oleg, Zhenya, and Avi, hanging out with the crowd, chatting in Russian with fans eager to dust off their language skills, having drinks with us. Def Leopard never did that when they came through Omaha back in my high school years. Neither did Pink Floyd either time I saw them. That's why The Red Elvises are My Favorite Band, as they just hung out with the crowd and signed all my Red Elvises CD's.

By showtime, the crowd had built and continued growing all night long as passersby and late- comers blew in off the streets. They were greeted by things like Igor doing moves with his legs that no human should be able to do, Zhenya playing his guitar out above the crowd so hot I can't believe the women and the gay men weren't draping him in castoff underclothing, Igor set on stage three feet from the door to the ladies room and winking and smiling at all the gals lined up there, and Avi beating the hell out of those poor drums and throwing in sarcastic comments from behind the other three.

They ripped through favorites from all five albums, lifting the crowd off its feet in a mass shaking of booties, pelvises, whatever we could muster as they gave high octane rock and roll in their own distinctive way. "Boogie On The Beach," "Scorchie Chornie," "Love Pipe," "Gypsy Heart," "Red Lips, Red Eyes, Red Stockings," "200 Pounds Of Pure Love," and my favorite, "Sad Cowboy Song" and more and more, it was a frenzy of happy, exhausted people up front, smiling and drunk people behind them, in probably the best live show I've ever been lucky enough to catch.

And had I only kept better tabs on their website, I might have known they were coming to play 2 shows and thus had that second night off of work and thus seen them twice. As it is, I'm checking to see if they come close to here again, as before that show they were ONE of my favorite bands, not My Favorite Band as they are now.