Red Elvises at Rusty’s Surf Ranch
October 6, 2001 By Kayt

Good news / bad news time…. Red Elvises were playing their home venue, Rusty’s (yippee!) but it was the very last Rusty’s show of the year (boohoo!). But in this case, the good far outweighed the bad of course, because it’s Our Favorite Band we’re talking about, and as a special treat they had been rehearsing a bunch of new songs to play for us!

Now first let me say that I did not get drunk this time. Just a couple of beers, really. No, really! I wasn’t the only one; Igor was seen drinking straight cranberry juice, very healthy. So I should have a much clearer picture of the evening, which was a good one, than I did the last time. It also helped in writing this report that I swiped their set list right after the last note of the last song of the second set was finished, so I have the new song titles, or close enough (relying on memory in a couple of places where Zhenya [I’m thinking he wrote it?] didn’t write out the entire title). I’m always surprised to see them use a set list since they rarely do, especially at Rusty’s. But with the new songs I’m sure it helped, even though, true to form, they ended up not sticking to it….that always makes me laugh (it’s cute, right? “Let’s do a different song here instead…” or something to that effect I guess, is communicated between them in Russian), but with so many great songs to choose from, a little diversion from the list doesn’t bother the audience a bit.

The show started sometime around 10:00pm. One of the first things I noticed (nothing…well, sometimes a lot, gets by me…) was that Igor got a new bass guitar. What kind, you ask? Well, it’s a pretty cool white one with black around the edges and four strings. Obviously I’m no expert on guitar brand names, and he kept moving it around, so there you go, I couldn’t see what it said on it too well. It was so new and shiny that it still had the UPC bar code sticker on the back of the neck, and in looking through my pictures later I was happy to see that I did manage to get one of that, because I thought it was amusing. It doesn’t take much to make me laugh sometimes, and in light of world events lately, we should all laugh as much as possible to keep from worrying and crying. That’s why entertainment is still so important, it can help soothe our jangled nerves as well as give us evenings of Red joy.

And we had plenty of entertainment that night! The first set was relatively short but sweet, and started with a new song, “Shooting Star,” quickly followed by another new one, “California.” I love seeing and hearing these guys play brand new songs for us, especially in a small intimate setting like Rusty’s where we’re right under their noses anyway; it feels like they watch us to see how well we like the song, as closely as we watch them to see what they’re going to next up there! Sort of a “first date” feeling…”You like me? Good, I like you too!”  I also enjoy glancing at the crowd around me to see how the new song is going over…some people get into it right away and start moving and dancing to the beat, some have to stand and “absorb” it a little more. But nobody ever hates it and stomps out, the Elvii have that way with making songs that grab you and don’t let you go till you’ve heard it all and liked it and wanted more. These new songs are no exception. The only problem during a little of the show though, was that the sound levels seemed to be rather out of whack with the mics not loud enough, resulting in some nearly drowned-out vocals. Of course, I’m no expert on that sort of thing, it just seemed that way to me. In spite of that though, the new songs rocked, and they fit very nicely into the Red Elvises “makers of the good time” scheme of things. I sense a kick ass new CD in our future and we can all be sure these guys won’t let us down!

The next song was an old favorite, “Red Lips, Red Eyes, Red Stockings,” and two more new songs followed it: “Hari Matahari,” and “Good Times Tonight.” Then, as seen on TV (Melrose Place): “Gypsy Heart,” and after that another new one, “Invitation to Make Love.” “Get Up and Dance” was next, which many of us have heard before but hasn’t been recorded yet. Then we went wild on “Love Pipe” and the first set ended with “Juliet,“ another rather new song growing in popularity and as yet unrecorded.

The second set was where the set list and the actual songs played started to part company, and as hard as I tried to read the handwritten set list upside down, I wasn’t having a lot of success with it, so I finally gave up trying to see what they were likely to play next and just danced and enjoyed. The songs were “Rocketman,” a then another new one “Big Red Van” (for days afterward, for some weird reason, I had the song “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round…” stuck in my head, although my version was “The Wheels on the Van….” – even though “Big Red Van” sounds NOTHING like that silly children’s song!). Also, we heard several other new ones, “Marionetri,” “Sunshine,” “Fantasy,” “She Is In Love,” and the humorously titled “I Left My Hard On in San Francisco,” apparently the heart-rending tale of a guy who left something vitally important that he’s very attached to in another town…or more likely, he left a hot girl and his reaction to her in another town. Intertwined with the new songs were some old favorites, “Sad Cowboy Song” and “Belly Dance,” during which there were so many girls onstage that Igor set his mic stand on the floor in front of the stage and sang the song from down there. The show ended with “Closet Disco Dancer” to the accompaniment of many many index fingers in the air moving up and down to the disco rhythm of the song and most of us belting out parts of the chorus along with the band. People screamed for one more song, but the show was over….the lights came up and people moved toward the bar for last drinks.

Afterwards, in the warm rosy glow of yet another fantastic Red Elvises show, Oleg called me over to the stage and showed off his patriotic underwear; boxers with red, white and blue American flag designs all over them. As a “new American,” he wants everyone to see his true colors. Cheers for the RED, white and blue!