Bluebird Park, Laguna Beach, CA

Before you can enjoy a Red Elvises show, you have to get to it, and in the rare instance that the Tour page of the website doesn’t quite provide all the necessary information, that means you have to find it another way. So I asked Oleg, who didn’t know. Then I asked Igor, who also, interestingly enough, didn’t know. This was unusual! So I turned to that great fount of all information in this day and age, the Internet, and searched for it. In the process, I called three festivals in Laguna Beach – the guy who answered the phone at the Sawdust Festival sounded kinda sad that Red Elvises weren’t playing there this year – before finally finding the date listed on the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce website, of all things. The show turned out to be in Bluebird Park, a picturesque little fenced park with hills, swings and great big slides hidden away in the hills just a little southwest or so of all the festivals.

Parking was along the street and I had to go partially up another hill to find a spot. Then I started down toward Bluebird Park. And remembered I’d forgotten the camera in the car! Duh. Luckily I hadn’t gotten very far. Armed with the Nikon, off I went again. As I walked inside the fence I heard familiar sounds of musicians doing a sound check, as park people handed me things…a button proudly proclaiming the park’s twenty year anniversary and a piece of paper with instructions on how to enter a contest to win a Mini Cooper. They also really liked my Red Elvises “Better Than Sex” camp shirt; the guy park person said “Cool shirt! Where did you get that?” I thanked him and said “From them, they sell them,” gesturing toward the band, as I walked on into the park. Everywhere, in row after row, people were sitting in lawn chairs, spread out on blankets, surrounded by picnic supplies and coolers. Lots of people! It looked like a giant beach party without the beach. I walked over to where the guys were, which was on a small hill that formed a natural “stage” at the front of the large grassy area where the audience was sitting. There was a line (masking tape?) across the grass about twenty feet from the stage, to form a “dance floor.” People were even sitting on the patio of a house on the edge of the park, watching.

I heard Igor talking to the Park Lady (sorry, I didn’t get her name), who I suppose is who booked them, about what to expect from the people there. “Do they dance?” he asked, and was assured they do, and that they always want an encore. Two good things to hear! There were lots of kids, as is usually the case with outdoor, family-oriented, venues, and Oleg had his adorable nieces there, so they had plenty of playing to do. It was a beautiful day, really nice weather. I think the weather isn’t allowed to be bad in Orange County, it must be a local ordinance or something, because every time I’ve ever been to Laguna Beach the weather has been just lovely.

Something else lovely…some very nice people had brought lots of food and set it up on a picnic table across from the stage, saying it was for the band and guests. They very graciously invited me and everyone else associated with Red Elvises there to have something to eat. I mainly wanted some water, since I’d left mine in my far away car, but I tried some salad and gazpacho (cold red soup), which was excellent. Dimitri set up the merchandise table and the guys got ready to rock the park.

Surprise! I actually wrote down the songs this time! The show began with “200 Flying Girls,” then they played “Telephone Call From Istanbul,” “Gypsy Heart,” “Boogie on the Beach,” and “Harriet” – and it was during “Harriet” that people finally got up and started dancing. The other songs in the first set were “California,” “This Music is Wasted If We Don’t Dance,” “Hawaii,” “I’m Not That Kind of Guy,” “Sad Cowboy Song,” and they closed out the first set with the classic “I Wanna See You Belly Dance.”

There was a short break, and I can’t really tell you what the guys did then because I took advantage of the time to go stand on line for the um…facilities, where I was amused to see the sign said “Girls.” I talked to the very grown up “girls” in front of me, since with my shirt I was sort of a combination walking billboard and goodwill ambassador… “Have you seen them play before?” I asked, to pass the time in line. They hadn’t… “We were expecting Elvis impersonators…” But they were certainly not disappointed, they really liked what they’d been hearing and seeing. Always good to hear that from first-timers!

The second set began with “Love Rocket” and moved on to “Night Butterfly,” “Lovepipe” (always strange to hear it without people shouting “Lovepipe!” on the first chorus!), “Scorchi Chornie,” the renamed English-version “Natasha’s Singing Reggae,” “Sex in Paradise” and “Rocket Man.” The crowd DID want to “hear one more,” in fact, they wanted to hear two more, so the encores were “Closet Disco Dancer,” with lots of fingers pointing in the air, and “Jerry’s Got A Squeeze Box,” which brought the house…uh, maybe grass, down as always. A girl named Michelle who was having her fifteenth birthday was brought up on the grassy hill stage during the second set and serenaded with “Happy Birthday to You” as she stood there happily grinning. Tiny little boys danced like little rockstar wannabe’s at the foot of the hill, staring up at the band, jumping up and down and throwing themselves down on the grass from time to time.