Live From Illinois

By Willie

It seemed like it would never get here but the day finally did when the Red Elvises returned to Northern Illinois. The first stop was at Kryptonite in Rockford. I arrived early and ran into Oleg at the van and joined the guys for dinner at a local eatery. After dinner we went back to Kryptonite to see the warm up act “The Ghettobillies.” They did a good job of getting the crowd of about fifty people in the mood. After the guys set up it was time for some Siberian Surf Music.

The first set moved well and I enjoyed hearing a few old favorites and two new songs I had never heard before. During the break my daughter Marti sold some merch for the band. The second set rocked even though the crowd thinned a little. The final number was another new song that Igor’s Grandma used to sing him. I got to talk with the guys for a short while after the show but had to leave for home so I could go the work the next day.

Three days later I saw a killer show at Fitzgeralds in Berwyn. I arrived very early (I was the second person to get there) and took pictures of the load in and set up. Marti had promised to do merch again and Oleg set everything up for her. This was the first show I had seen in a while with no warm up act. It was fun seeing old friends again and making some new ones.

The first set was about forty-five minutes and the second ran about seventy minutes. That included four encores at the end of the show. After the usual two the crowd kept screaming and they came back and then came back again. One fan was so impressed he bought as much of the CD collection as was available (they had run out of “Belly Dance”).

We all sat around till the bar cleared the room and then we took up in the parking lot and talked and laughed with the guy till about 3AM. Schramm had gone into his bank earlier in the day and dropped off some fliers after he finished, and it turned out his teller was Russian and he brought a few of his friends to the show. I ended up taking pictures, none of which were of the performance, that you can enjoy some are of set up some are teardown and some are just goofiness.

Now I have to wait till I get to see them again but I do feel a little more energized.