Rusty's Surf Ranch, Santa Monica, CA
November 22, 2002
By Kayt

For the first time in many months, Red Elvises played Rusty’s again, and it was quite a joyous homecoming. They came home to us from six shows in one week on the road but appeared energetic and as ready to rock as ever.

As some of you in various cities on this tour may have seen and experienced, the guys have recently acquired some exciting new toys – two bubble-producing machines to add to the general fun and zaniness of all Red Elvises shows. It’s sort of surreal to be dancing to “I Wanna See You Belly Dance” while surrounded by a swarm of lovely bubbles flying in the air. It may not be quite as great when the bubbles fly straight toward your face during, say, “Closet Disco Dancer,” but it’s still fun (I found it amusing, anyway) and gives you something else to do with your hands while you dance (waving bubbles out of your face, that is, in addition to just generally waving your hands in the air). The bubbles also show up remarkably well in photographs, which I made sure to take following this conversation with Oleg during the break:

Oleg: “Did you get any pictures of the bubbles?”

Me: “Uh, no, but maybe next time.” (during the bubbles’ first appearance I was busy doing my version of belly dancing, easily discernable from any resemblance to real and actual belly dancing.)

But I’m getting ahead of the story.

The first set was full of old favorites and then some, a lot of them from the motion picture event of the twentieth century, “Six-String Samurai.” Some of the songs we heard were “Red Lips, Red Eyes, Red Stockings,” “Gypsy Heart,” “Lovepipe,” “Rocketman,” “Sad Cowboy Song,” complete with the triple Russian treat on the drums that we’ve all come to love and enjoy, and lots of others, including an Oleg special, “Boogie on the Beach.” There were a lot of fun-loving fans and soon-to-be fans there but it wasn’t the most packed I’ve ever seen Rusty’s get, so there was enough room for actual dancing as opposed to the “tight crowd wiggle” that often must be done at Red Elvises shows there. We even got a special treat that we haven’t had in a long time when Igor put on his golden jacket in which to channel Elvis and they did a rousing rendition of “Blue Moon” with Zhenya on drums, ending with Igor on his back on the floor showing his red, white and blue socks. “I Wanna See You Belly Dance” finished up the set with the aforementioned bubbles flying around our bellies and other body parts.

During the break there was the usual mingling, talking, buying of merchandise, flirting, drinking and et cetera, and I even met a guy from Red Chat! So if you’re at a show and see me, do come over and introduce yourself like he did, because you can, I suppose, take this is as proof that I don’t bite…well, not unless requested, anyway. Moving right along, if you too want to broaden your social circle, stop in at Red Chat on Tuesday nights from 7:00pm PST till whenever your eyes start to close and chat with some very nice like-minded people. And now we return you to your regularly scheduled concert review.

Soon it was time for the second set. Zhenya did a specially requested song, “Ready To Fly,” one that we don’t hear often enough, and everyone got down on the floor for “Jerry’s Got a Squeezebox.” We also heard old favorites “Harriet” and the audience-participation song “Suzanna” (“F**k that guy from MCI!”), amongst other great songs, and they finished up with “Closet Disco Dancer” while spewing those ever loving tons ‘o bubbles in the air.

After the show quite a few people hung out to talk and I was able to take a few candid photos of the guys, which is always fun. It was another phenomenal Red Elvises show at Rusty’s and it goes without saying that I had a great time. I really wish all of you reading this could have been there too!