Ports 'o Call Village
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Lobsterfest |
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Lobster, as seafood goes, is smelly, let there be no doubt about that. Especially when you’re sharing a ride home with two of them in a box between the front seats of Red Elvises’ brand new, nice-smelling, van. But many people like eating lobsters and the annual San Pedro, California Lobsterfest is a fun festival to celebrate that desire. I’m getting ahead of the story, which is about Red Elvises, of course, not just lobster…so let’s start from the beginning…
In the pursuit of journalistic endeavors, that is, in order to report on a ride in the new van as well as on the show itself, and, yes, I’ll admit it, to hang out some more with Red Elvises because I just love being around those guys, I hitched a ride with Oleg and Igor in the new Big Red Van from Oleg’s place to and from the festival. So how was that (since I said I’d report on it)? It was cool…fun and a very smooth ride as well. Oleg is a very good driver (lots of experience!). I could get used to that, I’m sure…if I was independently wealthy, had no ties to “real life” and could travel around the country at the drop of a hat. But all things considered I was just happy for the opportunity to ride along with them that evening. Not having to ride the Lobsterfest parking-shuttle bus or stand in line to buy a ticket also rocked as a nice fringe benefit, I must say. We left Oleg’s around 6:20pm and headed off to pick up Igor and his guests Alanna (sorry if my spelling is wrong!) and Dascha; Schramm followed us in his own car and we met Adam and his lovely wife Dawn at the festival.
Their show time for Lobsterfest this year was 9:00pm, quite different from their usual early afternoon performance time. I’d never been to that festival at night before…it seems to be more about the bands and the food at night, not to mention much cooler. In fact, there was quite a cool breeze coming off the water and I stupidly forgot to take a jacket, so Igor was kind enough to let me borrow one of his which really saved me a lot of shivering. You wouldn’t think it could be cold at night in September in Southern California but you’d be surprised. When we arrived and Oleg parked behind the stage the 7:00pm band, Most Valuable Players, was onstage. They were pretty good. The guys soon unloaded the van and some of us watched MVP for a while. A couple of friends arrived and I went to get some beer with them…we all got some food and hung out here and there, and Alanna and Dawn set up the merchandise table.
Our guys were on the stage setting up when I went to get another beer, and the people selling the drink tickets at the beer tent were talking about the balalaika. They were quite a long way from the stage but they could of course see it loud and clear at that distance due to its shiny happy color. “Do you see that big red triangle guitar?” one of them asked the other one. Long time band friend Alex and I explained that actually it’s a bass balalaika…they seemed to think that was cool.
Soon it was show time and a large and very enthusiastic crowd had gathered on the dance floor in front of the stage. The first song was “Lovepipe” and the crowd went wild with dancing and singing along. After that the guys played “It’s a Wonderful Night to Fall in Love,” “200 Flying Girls,” “Boogie on the Beach,” “Night Butterfly,” “Strip Joint is Closed,” “Sad Cowboy Song” with its very cool drum solo, and finished the first set with “I Wanna See You Belly Dance.” The Lobsterfest stage is very high, like for the Rolling Stones at a big giant rock concert, so Oleg came down the steps backstage and out into the audience to get girls to go dance onstage. He managed to get me (not much arm-twisting needed there) and a friend who hasn’t gotten onstage in years, as well as many other girls, to go up there. It’s so much fun and such a rush…we had plenty of room on that stage! Please allow me a little gushing here… The guys looked and sounded really really really great up there, from the audience as well as from the stage itself, where the sound wraps all around you and is even louder and more wonderful than imagineable. No, really, Oleg, Igor, Schramm and Adam were absolutely amazing, again! As if you needed convincing...yeah, you know! Okay, gushing fit is over…for now (but always likely to happen again with no warning at any given moment…).
The second set, after a short break, consisted of probably more than the four songs I wrote down but at least I tried. What I wrote was: “Harriet,” “Love Rocket,” “Flaming Cheese” and “Closet Disco Dancer.” The whole show was great, anyway, and the Lobsterfest crowd sure did love Red Elvises.
After everything was packed up and loaded we all climbed into the van for the ride back to Venice, with those aforementioned smelly lobsters utilizing the space between Oleg’s and Igor’s seats. It didn’t faze me really, and I’m certainly not complaining; I just fastened my seat belt and tried to tune out my olfactory sense, a little tired but quite happy with memories of two great evenings. Red Elvises are on the road now and hopefully haven’t put any other smelly food in that brand new van (but will they? yeah...probably!), so be sure and check out their tour schedule so you don’t miss a show near you!
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