Skipper's Smokehouse
Tampa, FL - November 8, 2002
By Mathew Colangelo

The night was calm and warm, God I love Novembers in Florida. I had the convertible top down, and my date’s blond hair flowed with the wind as we raced down I-275. I’m glad she went, because she never heard of the Red Elvises before, and wasn’t sure if she’d like the band because of my description of Russian Rockabilly and surf music was something she never heard of before, which is of course what makes the Red Elvises so great. Uniqueness in a sea of pop, heavy metal, and all of those damn polka bands. The place the band was playing at was Skipper’s. Skipper's is semi-famous in the Tampa Bay area as a place to kick back and enjoy the music in the open air. The place itself had walls of tacky touristy Floridian things, like a TGIF restaurant and sea captain got their freak on and had this weird love child of kitsch. Now Skipper’s is exactly my kind of restaurant as far as mentality for the customer, lay back and relax, but I don’t want the wait staff the same way. Our waitress sucked, and trust me, I’m not trying to be mean, because I myself am a waiter, and know how it all works. We planned on eating there before going outside to the music, Arriving an hour early, I thought this would be enough time. Not in Planet Slow-mo, where our server lived. Our food came out 35 minutes after another couples food came out that had sat down ten minutes after us. My date had a buffalo chicken sandwich, I had alligator ribs, and I probably could have killed both animals and cooked them faster than their cook staff. But enough about that, it’s not important. What’s important is that the greatest band I’ve ever heard of is going to perform soon, live and with me right there.

The opening band was decent, with a girl who had quite the vocal talent as the lead singer. Their name was “Jessie and the Venturas”, and without Jessie they’d probably be line cooks at Skipper’s. About an hour in came the real guys with outstanding ability. Oleg, Igor and Zhenya. The music gods ascending on stage caused great roars from the crowd. They played everything that you could ask for, and the crowd participation level was amazing, we constantly sang the choruses out in tune. My favorite line that all three said constantly during the night was, “Remember, the more you drink, the better we sound.” I really didn’t drink much, but obviously they sounded amazing without liquid encouragement. I wondered how “Rocket Man” would have sounded live, how they could possibly do it like when they recorded it, but let me say, it was outstanding. “ 4, 3, 2, 1” never sounded so poetic. Luckily my date and I were able to get up front and switched throughout the night between standing up to the right of the stage and sitting on a bench a little farther back. During the break the Red Elvises came out into the crowd to drink a few coronas and chat with various fans. That’s when I was made the happiest guy in the state. I got to talk with Oleg and get a picture taken with him and my date. I was smiling ear to ear for hours after that moment. That’s also when I went up to the merchandise table and bought some memorabilia. I bought a bowling shirt, with the album ‘Rokenrol’ label, a poster, and (I couldn’t resist) a RE condom. Sadly, my date thought the condom was amusing but not of use that night. Now that I’ve offended the women readers of this article I’d better get back to the action, um, well the action on stage. Igor performed the best damn Elvis impersonation when he sang ‘Blue Moon’. Swaggering around to the music, gesturing to the crowd, caressing two fans’ faces, one a girl, the second a guy, that was hilarious. The girl was standing right in front of me and nearly swooned. That’s when the panties got thrown on stage. Igor, my man, picked up the pink underwear, put them on over his pants and started dancing. Simply comical. But the night had to end sometime unfortunately, and it did, but with me very happy, and my date fascinated with the new music that I introduced her to. I’m sad to hear that Zhenya has left the band, he played a mean guitar, but I can’t wait till March 21st when they perform at Skipper’s again and we will hear how the two new guys sound. Rock on.