Blue Café, Long Beach, CA
May 12, 2002
By Kayt

Three Russians had a dream, to play rock ‘n roll in America, and have been doing just that for over six years now. So what were they doing in a blues club in Long Beach? Playing their special brand of rock ‘n roll on the main stage while blues bands played upstairs! I never saw or heard any blues bands there that night but the guy taking money at the patio entrance told me there was blues upstairs as I walked in wearing a bright red shirt. I’ve got nothing against blues - I like Etta James’ and Ella Fitzgerald’s music quite a lot (blues or jazz, I like ‘em both) – but on May 12^th I was only at the Blue Café to see three dreamy Russians play kick ass rock ‘n roll from Siberia.

There were quite a few other people there to see Red Elvises too; it wasn’t a packed house but the tables and dance floor were nicely populated early on. The band hadn’t played the Blue Café in a long time so I was sort of surprised that even more people didn’t turn out to see them there. I hadn’t seen them myself since March 29^th and anyone who regularly reads my scribblings and/or knows me knows what a month and a half with no Elvii sightings can do to me, the original “red withdrawal” girl. So I was all set for a great time, and then it got even better -- we had a special guest! I won’t keep you in suspense….it was Avi Sills, drummer extraordinaire! It was great to see him again too; I think I last saw him in February or sometime. He’s doing fine and he dropped by to see his old friends and get a buzz going about his newest project. He brought along Chris Murphy, of a band called Ponticello (see last two words of previous sentence), with his electric violin. But more on that in a few minutes.

The show soon started with two new songs that pulled people out on the dance floor right away and sounded fantastic. They concentrated slightly more on recent songs like “Sunshine,” “Long Way Home,” “Juliet” and a lot of others but also played some classic favorites including (in no particular order) “Suzanna,” “Closet Disco Dancer,” “Jerry’s Got a Squeezebox,” “Sad Cowboy Song,” “Scorchi Chorniye,” “Lovepipe,” “Rocketman” and of course, “I Wanna See You Belly Dance.” There were more songs of course, but once again I forgot to take notes between drinking beer (not much), snapping digital photos (a lot!) and dancing (quite a lot).

During the break I visited the merchandise table to bring my CD collection up to date with “Rokenrol,” the band’s latest CD, released just two days before, and Zhenya’s (a.k.a. Zee Rok) solo debut CD, “Slave,” also just released. “Rokenrol” is recorded in Russian, “just to piss you off!” exclaimed Oleg from the stage as the first set ended. That is, except for two songs in English, “Sunshine” and “Juliet,” the latter of which on the CD sports a lovely chorus sung by a little nine-year-old Russian girl (looped many times over to sound like a children’s chorus), which absolutely cracks me up every time I hear it…that sweet innocent little voice and that “F” word…oh my! I guess I have a rather warped sense of humor, but hey, many kids these days hear that word about three days into their school careers…not what most parents would prefer, but that’s reality. It’s funny, anyway, so lighten up. Although I had to wait to listen to these CDs till the next day, I have since listened to them many times and I’m here to tell you that they are both excellent though very different from each other. It’s good to be flexible and open to many different types of music. “Rokenrol” is fun, high spirited and as danceable as any of Red Elvises’ earlier CDs, even if you don’t speak Russian and have to sing along phonetically or hum. I’ve loved “Juliet” and “Sunshine” for the many months I’ve heard both songs played live. They both definitely rock. But one of my favorite songs in Russian on “Rokenrol” is “Natasha Loves Reggae,” which I’d never heard before but really like a lot. The chorus goes “Natasha liubit reggae…” so I can at least sing along to that since I asked someone what the Russian word for that form of the word “love” is. Hearing this CD really makes me wish I had started studying Russian several years ago!

“Slave” is a delicious darker flavor of rock, without so much roll, and really shows Zhenya’s talents in a different direction. I highly recommend it. My favorite song on “Slave” so far is “Long Way Home,” which also is amazing live, by the way. It’s a great song for driving – the other day I was on the nearly always very crowded 405 freeway heading north, going along at a speed of maybe 30 or 40mph (speed limit is 65 with most people driving 70 or faster when they can), and “Slave” was in my CD player. When “Long Way Home” started the traffic miraculously thinned out enough to actually drive closer to the speed limit! When the song ended, traffic clogged up again! Weird, huh? Try it on your freeways and highways and see what happens! And now, back to the show…

During the second set they got Avi up there to drum some songs with them, which was a wonderful kick in the heart. I love Red Elvises in their post-2000 form, of course, but it was still nice to trip down Memory Lane just briefly. Not only is Avi a terrific drummer, as we all know, but it was additionally great that with him there all three Russians could be up front to ham it up for us, and, aside from the absence of the big red balalaika, it was almost like flashing back to the old days. For several songs Chris Murphy also joined them onstage to play his electric violin, with Avi on drums and Zhenya and Oleg on guitar and bass, respectively. During one or two songs Igor took a break and watched from the back of the room before rejoining his bandmates onstage. If you’ve never heard an electric violin played as a rock instrument I hope you have the opportunity someday, it’s quite cool and Chris’ electric violin added a different and unusual element to the music.

To sum it all up, the whole evening was terrific and not to be forgotten. With a beautiful, perfect performance of Zhenya’s “Long Way Home,” a wild and fun rendition of Igor’s “Closet Disco Dancer,” complete with fingers in the air and much leaping about, and the amazing and gorgeous Russian-ness of “Scorchi Chorniye” Oleg treated us to, it made me happy all over again that these three Russians brought their dream of playing kick ass rock ‘n roll to reality. May they make America dance and enjoy for a long long time to come. Now I won’t see them again until August, but at least I’ll get to see them twice then…can’t wait!