Sawdust Festival, July 29, 2001
Laguna Beach, CA By Kayt

The main entertainment deck at Laguna Beach’s Sawdust Festival at noon on a day the Red Elvises are scheduled to perform is a place brimming with expectant, happy anticipation. People slowly started to gather and claim seats on the wooden benches that on this day have been arranged slightly further back from the performance area to make room for “beautiful dancers.” The weather was perfect – actually, I don’t think it’s allowed to be anything less than that in Laguna in the summer – and the setting, with the lush waterfall, greenery and flowers behind the deck and the stalls filled with artisans’ wares on the other three sides, was peaceful and refreshing to the spirit.

Soon the band arrived and the excited buzz grew as they began to set up. Vladimir set up the merchandise table beneath the shade of a large tree. A beverage cart was set up on the other side of the tree, which made it convenient for anyone wanting a cold drink and a CD or t-shirt to take home as well. They were ready to start the show in a short while and as the first crisp notes of rokenrol hit the air everyone settled in for a great afternoon of music.

At past Sawdust Festivals they have played many of the same songs repeatedly in a series of short sets throughout the afternoon, with people coming and going for each set. This year there were hardly any repeats of songs, except for “Colors of Rainbow” and one or two others, and a lot of the same audience seemed to stay for all or most of the sets. Some of them even danced!

They began the show with “Voodoo Doll,” moving on into “Hanky Panky Kind of Love,” Zhenya’s terrific new song “Sunshine,” Igor’s very cool though underrated (kicks ass live!) “Colors of Rainbow,” “Red Lips, Red Eyes, Red Stockings” and ended the first set with “Flaming Cheese,” which made everyone smile and sing along during parts of it. After a short break they started again with “Make it To the Top” and filled out that and the next set with “Telephone Call From Istanbul,” their new rap-enhanced version of “Three Alley Cats,” “Scorchi Chornie,” “Rocketman” and “I Wanna See You Belly Dance.” In years past, the belly dancing troupe of the talented J.J. Habibe has been scheduled to appear later on the same days as Red Elvises. They usually arrived early, in their colorful belly dancing costumes, and danced for everyone during that song, turning it into a visual as well as auditory extravaganza. But this year, possibly due to scheduling differences, we had no costumed belly dancers. Audience members were happy to fill though, and all was groovy.

After playing “Colors of Rainbow” for the second time, Oleg joked “For those who’ve just arrived, we are the Rolling Stones!” Zhenya and Igor chimed in with some Stones-like guitar riffs and then Oleg admitted the truth everybody already knew, “No, we are Red Elvises!” The musical happiness continued with “Girls Gonna Boogie Tonight,” “My Darling Lorraine,” “San Antone,” “El Nino,” “Harriet,” “Rocketman” again, “Please Don’t Tell Me What I Did Last Night,” “Sad Cowboy Song” (complete with not only a drum solo by all three Elvii at the same time but a conga line too!), “Wild Man,” “Don’t Stop the Dance,” “Lovepipe,” “Everybody Disco” and they ended the afternoon with “Who’s Your Daddy.”

If it were a crime to cause crowds of people at an outdoor arts festival to have a really great time listening to music then these guys would all be in big trouble! Fortunately, it isn’t, so it was just another amazingly enjoyable afternoon with our Favorite Band. Go see them often - wherever and whenever you can – you won’t regret it!