Red Elvises Rokenrol Tour
By willie

I recently spent three nights with The Red Elvises. April 10 – 12 they were in my part of the world. On Tuesday the 10^th I took my daughter Marti to her second show. It was Fitzgeralds in Berwyn (the same as her first RE experience). We went straight to the Rokenrol banner to meet the other cyberfans. Ron and Linda from Ohio made the banner and used it as a signpost to gather other fans from the chatroom (Tuesday nights 10PM et 7PM pt Stop in we don’t bite). One of the first people we met was Gremlen (Kenneth Karp, guitarist for The Last Hip White Boys).

From earlier reports we had heard Oleg was not a redhead so Linda (Jackdaw) and I had both gone red for the occasion. Linda’s hair came out great, mine came out more of a pink than red but it was alright because Oleg had gone to a dark red.

I had seen RE’s 15 times previously but never as a three piece. The opening lineup was Oleg on Drums, Igor on Bass, and Zhenya on Guitar. During the course of the show all three played all three instruments, as far as I can figure they are the only band where every member plays every instrument.

The first two things you notice are no Avi and no Balalaika. This was not my first time seeing them without the Balalaika and I adjusted to not seeing it, as you will. The sound seems much tighter with only three musicians. Igor says its because there aren’t two out of tune guitars playing.

The guys seemed a little tired but put on a great show. The sound system at Fitzgeralds is the best I have heard at an RE show. After about 8 songs Igor took over on drums and Oleg came out front to play bass. After about 5 more songs they traded back and finished the first set with Bellydance.

After the setbreak they started with the same lineup as the first set, after a few songs Mr Z took the drums Oleg the bass and Igor the guitar. From this point till the end Z was shirtless. A couple of songs later Oleg moved to guitar Z to bass and Igor to drums. This is the way Sad Cowboy Song started, after all three played on the drum solo Z took the guitar and Oleg the bass to finish the song. They finished the night where they started with a new song, Juliet (Where the F*** are You) and Lovepipe. After the show Ron who is a home brewer gave each of the guys a 6 pack of his newest beer: Elvis Red Triple Habenero.

Wednesday night Ron and Linda and their niece Erica came to my housed for dinner before the show at the Elbo Room. The club room is in the basement and towards the stage starts to resemble a cave. There was a warm up act ( ) and while they were playing Ron and I helped the band load in their gear.

The show was similar to the one the night before with a few changes in the playlist. I should mention that for all three shows during Three Alley Cats Z put on a knit hat and rapped one verse, although after the Milwaukee show the hat "disappeared".. There was a young woman in the front row with a broken leg and at one point Z used one of her crutches to play his guitar.

During the setbreak I had a chance to talk to Mr Fabulous and help him sell a few CD’s. Even if you aren’t or can’t buy anything you should still stop by and say "Hi Mr Fabulous".. I actually missed the first couple of songs in the second set because cigars are not allowed downstairs (it was a cuban cigar).

Here is an incomplete set list from the three shows in a random order:

Every song was not played every night but these songs and possibly a few others were played over the three days.

The Ale House in Milwaukee is an active brewery; there are 8 brewing tanks in the front window. I was talking with a local before the show and he said that the crowds tend to talk and not listen to the music. They tried to talk but by the third song the crowd was into the music. When they got to Closet Disco Dancer in the second set Igor put on a new silver Disco Jacket given to him by Heidi (she also made hats for all the guys and Phelan and I got one too. Thanks Heidi). There was a lot of interest in seeing them at Summerfest but they will be in Russia at that time so maybe next year.

I would recommend seeing the Red Elvises as often as you can. The more shows you see in the shortest time possible the better they sound and the more fun you will have. I plan on seeing them a few more times this year so be sure to say hi to the fans around you.