Red Elvises in St. Petersburg, FL
Sept. 16, 2000
By Kayt

The Coliseum Ballroom in St. Petersburg, Florida is an interesting place. Not a bar as I had originally thought, but a large pale Florida-pink venue with a huge wonderful theatrical stage and the atmosphere of a big old friendly and well-equipped community center. Once home to blues and swing bands and the jitterbug crowd in the Big Band era, it has stood the test of time quite well and today plays host to rock and roll bands and other modern phenomena. I don't know if it's always decorated or if the strings of white lights had been hung from the rafters for local radio station WMNF's 21st birthday bash that night, but either way it was impressively festive, especially to someone from California who hadn't expected anything quite like this.

The tickets announced the event as BYOB, which explained the people going in carrying coolers as if they were going to an indoor picnic. I hadn't seen that sort of thing since the last time I went to a concert at The Hollywood Bowl. It also meant I didn't bring any beer of my own, since I didn't know about that until I got there and bought a ticket. Oh well...another alcohol-free night didn't kill me, obviously. Inside the Coliseum there were long tables set up with chairs, available for anyone to commandeer, as well as small open rooms on either side of the main floor. Some of the small rooms had tables and chairs, others had vendors selling jewelry and other wares, and one contained a soft-drink refreshment stand. A wide strip down the middle of the floor was obviously meant for watching and dancing, with the tables on either side. Once everyone was inside there were easily 1,200 people of all ages in attendance, if not more, many wearing red and some already dressed in Red Elvises bowling shirts they had purchased at the venue-run merchandise stall in the back of the room. I got there early and enjoyed people-watching, and I sure was looking at a ton of people who looked like they were ready to have a good time.

Three bands were scheduled to play, with Red Elvises as the headliners. The first band was The Thrusters, made up mostly of girls dressed in groovy '60's clothes, singing and dancing to a lot of songs from that era and others. One of their songs sounded a lot like the Elvises' "Lovepipe" and was fun, and very interesting, to hear. The second band was called Orquestra Infinidad and played music with a Latin flavor. And of course the third band, the one listed in BIG letters on the tickets, was our own Red Elvises.

I was invited backstage by Phelan soon after the band arrived, probably much to the disappointment of the security guard who had been watching me for a while, lest I should turn into some sort of dangerous Red Elvises-loving maniac and wreak havoc by dancing with total lack of coordination (which I tend to do anyway!). Once up the stairs leading to the wings of the stage, there was a narrow staircase leading down into the dressing room area and restrooms. As with most backstage rooms, it was on the small side, so I tried, not always successfully, to stay out of the way. What goes on backstage? Mysterious, glamorous and wondrous events to warm even the coldest hearts on cold winter evenings? Well, no, not really, to disillusion a few, it's more like hanging out in a small, crowded, definitely unglamorous room with people constantly moving around and coming and going, food, fruit and beverages on a table that you feel funny about eating or drinking until invited to indulge (or maybe that's just me), an unavoidable amount of general confusion...and then someone starts changing clothes and you don't know where to look for a few minutes. When that happened in San Francisco last year I was out of there and into the hallway in a flash, but here there was nowhere to go except to clump obtrusively up the stairs. I took a few pictures, with everyone fully clothed, that is, and met a nice girl in dark red leather pants who had been selling merchandise before getting herself backstage. She had the good taste to wear a Red Elvises bumper sticker on her backside, so I knew right away she was a cool person!

When the show started, my new friend and I went out in the front to watch and take pictures from front row center. This was the highest stage I've seen the guys on since Gibson's in Tempe, AZ over a year and a half ago. The greatest things about the Coliseum stage were 1) it was enormous, big enough for 3 acts of a large-casted Shakespearean play, and 2) there were apparently huge fans (of the mechanical variety, not people who love Red Elvises!) underneath it, because in front of us was metal mesh and wonderful cool air was blowing out of there at us. So no complaining about the heat from me that night! Too bad Rusty's Surf Ranch can't have a system like that, although if they did it would only keep our feet cool (I like a low stage, personally, it gives one more of that "they're playing in our living room!" feeling. Groooovy.)

Anyway... A venue that can contain a stage the size of the Coliseum's makes for a great place for Red Elvises to play, because they didn't sound too loud there, they sounded exactly right, and they rocked the house like mad! It was amazing, fantastic, wild and so much fun. Now comes the moment of truth...am I going to tell you what songs they played? I really do listen when they play, it's just that later it all becomes a lovely red blur in my mind. The first set seemed to go by quickly, as they played most of the songs we are used to hearing, ("See, I TOLD you she wouldn't tell us the songs! Nyah!") with girls reaching up to touch an Elvis when Zhenya or Igor came close to the front of the stage. Someone threw a bra! This was a Rock Concert! The bra ended up on Igor's microphone stand, to the amusement of all the people around me. They finished up that awesome set with "I Wanna See You Belly Dance" and were joined onstage by a lot of gyrating girls, including some or all of The Thrusters, who turned out to be quite good at belly dancing. The one in the orange dress made a colorful target for my camera as she danced with Oleg. I took a lot of pictures and then went backstage again, and soon it was time for the second set. That "Rock Concert" feeling continued as a woman working there attempted to get everyone without a "pit pass" out, but Phelan convinced her to let me stay (thanks again, Phelan!), so I was lucky enough to be able to watch and photograph the second set from the wings.

The second set, not surprisingly, fired up the crowd as much as the first set did. Looking out at the house, it was heartwarming to see so many people enjoying our favorite band's music and stage antics. The band played a lot more terrific songs (whip out those imaginations again, everyone) and after a while, Avi somehow ended up shirtless again. I took pictures of everyone and tried to get the big crowd in some of them. All too soon, it was time for an encore, treating us to "Closet Disco Dancer." Igor put on his silver disco-ball jacket and "told the truth" about trading Police records for those of the Bee Gees. The crowd went wild. This was an even more exciting Red Elvises show than usual, because it was the same incredible music and good time that we always get, but in a bigger venue on that huge stage....it makes one think about how ready for the larger scale our favorite band is. They have played to much larger crowds than this at various festivals, of course, tons of people have seen them on television and hopefully in the movie "Six-String Samurai" and it's still a sweet treat that a lot of us get to enjoy them in small places too. All of which proves their versatility, immense talent and the accuracy of that "Rolling Stone" quote about them being "ready for the big time!" One thing is certain, they completely rocked the Coliseum on September 16th and provided St. Petersburg with great music it deserves!