Red Elvises at The Blue Cafe
Long Beach, CA
December 8, 2002
By Kayt

We had just arrived and helped our friend find her way into the nearby parking lot when the big red van, star of the road and (since “Fastlane”) the small screen, pulled up in front of the Blue Café in downtown Long Beach. The sight of the van pulling up is always exciting because it means fun, in the form of the night’s entertainment, has arrived, neatly packaged in beautiful mobile red with four well-traveled tires and big yellow letters along the sides. I put my new headgear on – very bendable candy cane striped “antlers” bent into the letters “R” and “E,” and walked toward the van with my evening’s compadres to say hello.

Inside, we got drinks (non-alcoholic for me, boo hoo) and ordered some dinner, which we ended up eating on the patio sharing a table with Oleg, Vladimir and Igor. I showed Oleg the batch of Red Elvises pencils Linda the amazing Pencil Fairy in Ohio was nice enough to send me to hand out at shows, and this led to dinner conversation about Linda and Ron’s Red Room, where the guys recently spent the night after a show (story in the November 2002 issue, in the Archives section). After a little while the guys had to go unload their equipment so we finished our dinner and later went back inside to claim a table with a view of the stage.

The show started with “Voodoo Doll” and moved on into “Gypsy Heart” and “Red Lips, Red Eyes, Red Stockings,” soon to be followed by (in incorrect order, I’m sure…) “Night Butterfly,” “Lovepipe,” “Jerry’s Got a Squeezebox,” “Rocketman,” Oleg’s stint out in front on “Scorchi Chorniye,” “Strip Joint is Closed” “Boogie on the Beach,” “Sad Cowboy Song” and the song I always think of as “Rock This Joint.” Igor worked the crowd into a red frenzy with “Harriet,” “Suzanna,” “I Wanna See You Belly Dance” (with bubbles), “Closet Disco Dancer” and many others. During the second set, to our great delight, Oleg took on Zhenya’s guitar and, with Igor on bass and Z on drums, just for fun they played and Oleg sang part of the classic Eagles hit, “Hotel California” kind of reggae-style. It was very cute and funny and inspired the kind of head-bobbing hip-swaying dancing that can only be done to an epic song like that being played in a blues bar by a trio of rokenroling Russians in the middle of the night. Then they switched and Oleg took over on the drums, sending Zhenya out front to play the “fancy guitar parts” of “Hotel California,” which was of course awesome. The small but appreciative audience shouted “wooo!” and “yeah!” and generally seemed to get a kick out of it. They also did a blow-the-roof-off rendition of “Honky Tonk Women.” Requests were shouted for “Stairway to Heaven,” which Z played a tiny intro bit of, and I even opted for “Proud Mary,” although I guess I didn’t yell it loud enough; no one seemed to hear me, but that’s okay.

I didn’t know at the time that this would be the last time the triple-Russian version of Red Elvises would grace the Blue Café’s stage. It’s too bad more people weren’t there to see this show, because it was a good one, as well as, sadly, the last time Long Beach will see Zhenya play with the band. He will be missed, most definitely, but I’m sure I can speak for many fans in saying we wish him luck wherever he plays. Only a handful of people sat at tables and at the bar and fewer still were on the dance floor by the middle of the second set, probably because it was a Sunday night, which means most people who aren’t hard working rock musicians have to go to some regular job on Monday morning and can’t stay out too late clubbing on Sundays. I fall into that category too but am a hopeless night owl, so I stayed till it was time for goodbyes.

We can look forward to seeing the reinvented Red Elvises 2003 in the Spring! Check the tour dates page for shows coming your way!