Rusty's Surf Ranch
Santa Monica, California
July 3, 2004
By Kayt
Every time I go to a Red Elvises show at Rusty’s I am blown away all over again at what an
incredibly good experience it is, and I’m fascinated by how each time they play there it’s
better than the last time, especially when they’ve been nothing short of excellent all these
years. I’m also astounded and thrilled by how much sheer g-force of musical power the place
can stand – this is, after all, high intensity musical reverberation multiplied by more fun
than a Southern California theme park’s roller coasters. And as we all know, these are sexy
guys with great personalities too, so you get the whole package in one great concert setting.
Saturday night, July 3rd, kicking off the 4th of July weekend with some Russian-style
independence-celebrating, brought a large, enthusiastic red-clad crowd to Rusty’s. If there was
an opening band I either didn’t get there early enough or don’t remember it, but I don’t think
there was one. I was greeted by Igor calling my name as I walked by the back patio so I went in
there to say hi. It was really good to see those guys again even though I had seen them in May.
(Now I know you have far better things to talk about amongst yourselves than how Red
Elvises-spoiled I am, but I do wish all of you reading this could come here and be spoiled like
this too…nevermind that it’s not quite as much of a “spoiling” as in years past when they
played somewhere in So Cal nearly every weekend or at least a couple of times a month, on
average…but whatever… It’s always great to see them anyway!). Being too lazy to walk around to
the front door, I went inside the back patio entrance, answered the friendly door guy’s
habitual question about how many shows this makes for me (85) and got myself a beer. I was
pleased to seeWillie, longtime fan in town visiting from Chicago, there, so I talked with him,
as well as a few other people, such as former Fan of the Month Derrick, for a while.
Once the music started I was having too much fun dancing to take notes, so I don’t remember all
the songs, but every one of them truly rocked. I felt like I was in the middle of a huge and
glorious wall of sound. It was more or less the same songs they usually play at Rusty’s, that
really groovy mixture of old and new. They started with “Lovepipe” and ended with, I think,
either “Juliet” or “Closet Disco Dancer.” In between, some of the songs were “Ticket to
Japan,” “Telephone Call From Istanbul,” “Strip Joint is Closed,” “Sad Cowboy Song,” “I Wanna
See You Belly Dance,” “Love Rocket” and “Boogie on the Beach.” There were a lot of others, of
course, but these were the ones that remained in my less-than-ideal memory the next day.
Suffice to say it was a thoroughly amazing show, powerful, rocking and magical. If I sound like
I’m always writing nothing but good things about them it’s because they never stop blowing me
away, to be perfectly honest. They were definitely on fire that night; it was hot, yet also
very very cool. Igor and Oleg got the crowd moving with their usual charm and virtuosity and
the vibe was warm, fuzzy and fun. During several songs while Alex (a.k.a. Sasha) was playing
keyboards Schramm joined them onstage to play sax along with Roman. On other songs Schramm
played keyboards just like last year, so they went from being a 5-piece band to a 6-piece and
back again as the show rocked on. Craig’s drum solo was even more incredible than usual and
seemed to go on for days. Everyone was having a great time. Igor went out into the middle of
the audience a couple of times, to the delight of the crowd and it must have looked like fun
because one time Roman joined him out there. Rusty’s isn’t really all that big, so if you’re
in the room where the stage is at all you’re never very far from the band, but it was still
quite nice for people in the middle of the crowd to be able to be even closer to the music.
The guys played their traditional “before we take a little break” song, “Belly Dance” and
invited girls up onstage in droves. It never ceases to amaze me how so many girls can fit up
there, along with the band, on such a small stage. I just try not to bump into anyone or
anything while up there, and even so I think I sort of bumped the back end of Oleg’s Big Red
balalaika once or twice (oops, guess I could blame it on the beer!).
It was, all in all, indeed an excellent experience…one of those very “on” nights – everything
was just perfect and I even made a couple of new friends! The phrase, “the old magic was back”
came to mind, but how can I say that when it never really left, so in the interest of accuracy and hardly any exaggeration I’ll
just say that the show rocked to the outer planets and back! Now of course I’ve never been to
the outer planets but who’s to say there isn’t a space cowboy of the extraterrestrial
persuasion sitting out there on one of them saying to his friend in their strange but eloquent
space language, “Dude! Do you hear that wonderful Russian surf rock ‘n’ roll sound? I so wish
we were on Earth right now to see that band!” Well… Okay, it's possible that extraterrestrials
on other planets don't actually call each other "dude." But at any rate, on this planet Red
Elvises are continually making new magic, so trust me when I tell you that you won’t want
to miss them when they come to a town near you!
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