Martini Blues
Huntington Beach, California
March 19, 2004
By Kayt
Martini Blues is a cool and surprisingly classy place for a club located in a strip
shopping center. It is actually a multi-room entertainment complex hosting several
bands and comedy acts all at the same time on any given night. It’s also very easy
to find and a fun place to hang out, have some drinks and watch the bands. Red
Elvises played in Martini Blues’ Legends Room, which is full of tables and has a
smallish dance floor in front of the stage which lines the far wall. The funniest
thing about Martini Blues is that a glass of red wine, cabernet, to be exact, costs
slightly more than a cosmopolitan, which surprised me because in my experience it’s
usually the other way around. But both were quite tasty and I suppose that’s good
information to have in case you ever go to there to see Our Favorite Band and want
to order some red drinks. They also have a red martini the name of which escapes
me – I didn’t have one of those so I don’t know its price, but it looked good anyway.
When I first arrived I saw a few people outside who I knew so we stood around
talking in the cool Southern California March evening air (hey, it does get “cold”
here at times!) for a few minutes, then went inside and got a table. Oleg greeted
us just inside the door and it was very nice to see him again! The Legends Room was
pretty full and the opening act, the Laurie Morvan band, was onstage sounding cool
and bluesy. After a few more songs they finished up and soon after our guys got up
onstage to warm up their instruments and get ready for their show.
Now naturally I couldn’t just sit at our table near the back of the room and watch
the show, so I, along with others from our table, headed up to the front just
before the show started. The other funny thing about Martini Blues, at least in the
Legend Room, is that the restrooms are down a hallway accessible via a doorway just
to the left of the stage, so when you go through there you kinda feel like you’re
going “backstage,” only you’re not really. But that hallway is a happening place in
its own right, everyone goes back there at some point because the rear door of the
club is back there too, so you can see a lot of people while waiting your turn.
Back in one of the best spots in the house, right next to the stage, I watched the
guys finish getting set up and eagerly awaited my first notes of live Red Elvises
music since December.
Soon the show began, with the ever-popular “Love Pipe.” The dance floor was
strangely empty at first, even after Igor announced that they were a dance band so
people should come up and dance, or words to that effect. I got the feeling the
crowd there didn’t know quite what to make of our Russians and their wild,
high-spirited rock ‘n roll, but the guys’ charisma and the joyful spirit of the
music started to win them over pretty soon. Two guys came and stood in front of
the stage smiling and watching. Finally I think another guy and a girl came up and
started doing a little swing dancing, and I couldn’t stand not being out there one
more minute so I joined the small but growing bunch of dancers. Pretty soon there
were more people out there, which was great because the last little shred of
shyness I still have (no, really!) always hits me when the dance floor beckons
and no one is out there yet...every now and then I can be the first one but I
usually prefer for there to be at least a few other people out there dancing first!
They moved on from “Love Pipe” to “Boogie on the Beach” and then played “Gypsy
Heart,” “Love Rocket,” “Ticket to Japan” from their latest CD, the very sad “Strip
Joint is Closed,” everybody’s favorite invitation to form a conga line, “Sad Cowboy
Song,” and finished up that set with “I Wanna See You Belly Dance,” without the
help of onstage dancers this time (not a lot of room up there really).
During the break we mingled and talked and merchandise was sold at a small table on
the right side of the stage. And soon it was time for the second set as the guys
got back onstage..
The second set consisted of “Hawaii,” “Hungarian Dance #5,” “Venice USA,” “Natasha
Singing Reggae,” (that’s how Igor announced it and I actually prefer that title
to “Winter Reggae”), “This Music is Wasted if We Don’t Dance,” and the two encores
the audience wouldn’t let them leave the stage without doing, “Juliet,” and
“Rocketman.” They were rocking and this time people weren’t so shy about filling
the dance floor; even though some people had left during the break, it still felt
like a good crowd out there.
All in all, it was a great start to the 2005 live performance season. It was
totally great to see them again, they sounded terrific and it was the most fun
I’ve had in a shopping center in a very very long time!
** Coming next month, a write up of the first Rusty's show of 2005! **
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