14 Below, Santa Monica, CA, August 17, 2002
By Kayt
First let me say that it was amazingly wonderful to see Our
Favorite Band again, home after a road trip, shows in Russia to wildly
enthusiastic crowds and a long and presumably relaxing vacation. So I went to
14 Below anticipating a great night and of course was not disappointed. Our
last local show, if you count Long Beach – about 30-45 minutes south of Santa
Monica, as local, was in May. Hey, three months is a long time for me, and it’s
unusual for southern California to go that long without seeing Our Favorite
Band…and yes, I know I’m still spoiled. How do some of you survive only seeing
them once or twice a year or even less often? There are some very brave Red
Elvises fans out there!
14 Below is a small club on 14th Street and Santa
Monica Boulevard. Walk down a few steps into the tiny front room area with its
long bar, few tables and many barstools and through a wide doorway into a
shoebox-like rectangular room and you’ll see the waist-high (to a 5’4” person,
at least) stage, complete with tacky red velvet curtains that would do a quaint
old movie theatre proud. Right color, anyway! At the back of that room is a
door that I presume leads to another room with some pool tables but I never
ventured back there. The stage was the main draw for most people there that
night, although the bar was pretty popular too. They serve the usual dive-bar
assortment of beers, nothing fancy but you have your choice of bottled or draft
and its all cold and wet – two of my main desires for beer, imported being the
other one. I bought a Heineken and settled down at a table with my roomie to
hang out before the show, venturing into the other room a few times to see what
was happening onstage.
When we first arrived there was a band up there with a girl
singer. They sounded okay but I never found out the band’s name. Next was a
screaming-loud band of guys without shirts…or at least the lead screamer was
shirtless. They sounded almost punk but looked more like Santa Monica surfer
boys. I didn’t stay in the room long enough to offer more of an opinion than
that, but from our table right outside the stage room I heard way more of them
than necessary.
Soon, some people I’ve seen at countless shows started
arriving, and soon after that I saw my first Elvi of the evening, Zhenya, with
his beautiful and sweet girlfriend, Monica. Then Oleg appeared and I saw Igor
soon after. They all looked terrific, handsome and well rested. Igor wore a red
shirt and magenta pants (changing for the second set into a red shirt with
dragons on it), Zhenya was in his red leather pants that I don’t think I’ve
seen since last year’s Bumbershoot Festival, with a gold shirt for the first
set and white for the second, and Oleg wore one of his groovy shiny suits from
(possibly) Thailand. Each of them came over to greet me and then continued
hanging out talking to people while we all waited for the shirtless punky
surfer band to finish.
The cacophony in the other room stopped after a while and
soon our guys started setting up. It took a little longer than usual due to a
problem with Zhenya’s amp, which was soon remedied. Standing in front of the
stage like the Front Row Junkie I am, along with other crazy happy people, I
felt like I was in a box. The room was long and rather narrow, with barstools
along the sides but plenty of room to dance in front of the stage and down
through the middle of the room. When the red velvet curtains were finally
pulled open and the show started it felt like a box full of jumping, screaming
love and happiness! The boys were back in town!
They started with a rousing “Happy Birthday to You!” for
Oleg, whose birthday was two days prior. We all joined in, of course. Many
songs followed, including but not limited to (as the legal types say), in no
particular order because I couldn’t be bothered to take notes (again!): “Red
Eyes, Red Lips, Red Stockings,” “Sunshine,” “Juliet,” “Space Cowboy,” “I Wanna
See You Belly Dance,” “Sad Cowboy Song,” “Scorchi Chornie,” “Lovepipe,” “Boogie
on the Beach,” “Jerry’s Got A Squeeze Box,” “Gypsy Heart,” “Guitarist” and
another song in Russian from “Rokenrol.” After three encores they ended the
show with “Closet Disco Dancer.” We danced, we screamed, we yelled
“woooooooo!!!” till our lungs begged for mercy. It was an absolutely Red-tastic
show! I wish you all could’ve been there.
Red Elvises go back on the road in September, so be sure to
check the Tour Dates page for shows within driving distance (or flying
distance, if you’re really Red-deprived and rich!) of where you live. You will
have an amazingly wonderful time at any of their shows.
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