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Red Road Trip: Three Days in South Florida
| When I moved to the East Coast I said I would travel to Red Elvises shows on this side of the country whenever possible. What I didn’t realize was how far I would actually drive to do this! But I’ve always loved road trips and knowing there’s a chance to see the guys, even if the show is 800 miles away, just puts thoughts of driving down an interstate in my mind, what can I say? In August I drove nine and a half hours to Musikfest and over Labor Day Weekend I made the trek to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, which was about eight hours or so. And then these Red Elvises shows got booked in South Florida and at first I thought that was a little....well, far. But then I started |  |
After some thought, I decided to leave on the Thursday, Thanksgiving evening, and drive as far as the Savannah, Georgia area to spend that night, in order to break up the driving somewhat and not be so tired on Friday. That worked out well, I got a good night’s sleep and got up Friday morning with only about six and a half more hours to drive. The route from there was simple – I-95 all the way to Lake Worth, which is just barely south of West Palm Beach for those unfamiliar with Florida.
When I got there I found my hotel, a bed and breakfast two blocks from the Bamboo Room, and checked in. Once I got settled – they let me pick out my room and I’m the world’s worst at making decisions! – I went for a walk to find the club. At first I walked the wrong way, thanks to my skewed orientation from looking at the location on the Google satellite map, which apparently wasn’t lined up with North at the top like most maps. But knowing the club was on J Street I went back over there and then walked in the right direction, and had some good “timing” luck -- soon I was passing a cute little “tiki” style restaurant with big glass windows. I looked inside and saw some familiar faces in there, Igor, Oleg, Roman and the newest addition, Aaron, who I hadn’t yet met but had seen photos of. I waved at them through the window and then went inside and was invited to sit with them while they finished eating. We walked down the street after that so I could see where the club was and Oleg offered to put me on the guest list (thanks, Oleg!), and then they were off to get some sleep before show time. I went back to my hotel to rest a little and get ready for the show that night.
The Bamboo Room is a really cool place, once you climb up the steep leopard-carpeted staircase to the second floor. It’s a large room with a stage at one end, a big bar at the other and lots of tables and chairs in between. Jazz and blues posters and paintings on the walls, a dark mahogany sort of ambiance, low lighting...it’s all very cool and a primo place for enjoying Red Elvises.
Igor asked me if I’d help them out by selling merchandise and of course I said yes. So I multitasked as usual, selling, taking pictures, watching the show (the merchandise area was conveniently right next to the stage), drinking beer, dancing and writing down the songs as they played them. It was a great show, my first time to hear Aaron play keyboards, accordion and trumpet, first in a long while to hear Roman play sax with them again, first time since early September to hear Adam’s fine drumbeats and my 97th show in which to experience the wonder and joy of Igor’s and Oleg’s fine musicianship. Together they managed to warm up the rather reserved (at first) crowd. By the time they launched into Sad Cowboy Song I wasn’t too surprised to see people following their suggestion of starting a conga line “like real cowboys do.”
The songs for the first set at the Bamboo Room were: “Lovepipe,” “Telephone Call From Istanbul,” “Gypsy Heart,” “I’m Not That Kind of Guy,” “Love Rocket,” “Ticket to Japan,” “Strip Joint is Closed,” “Sad Cowboy Song” and they wrapped up the first set with the always rocking “I Wanna See You Belly Dance.” The break went by rather quickly and they started the second set with “200 Flying Girls,” following with “It’s a Wonderful Night (To Fall in Love),” “Venice U.S.A.,” “Ukranian Dance #13,” “Memoirs of a Phuket Geisha,” “Closet Disco Dancer” (“Let me see your index fingers!”), “Boogie on the Beach,” and then three encores: “A Kegga Beer and Potato Chips,” “Rocketman” and “Juliet.” The bass balalaika stayed home in California because the guys flew to Florida and the Big Red Balalaika doesn’t like to fly (airlines aren’t always kind to large triangular-shaped objects in a rectangular world), but Oleg’s “regular” bass sounded really great on all those songs.
After the show and after everyone seemed to be done buying t-shirts, work shirts, posters and CDs, I packed up the remaining merchandise for them and told Oleg I was going to go find Igor to give him his money and then had to “pee like a racehorse.” Uh, yeah, I was somewhat full of beer by then, which accounts both for the need and for saying that phrase out loud to someone. Oleg said, “Okay!” I’m sure it was probably more information than he wanted. So I accomplished both those things and then hung out talking with people for a while. I met some very nice people there, including Chris, who with his two sons produced a show for Red Elvises at another venue in South Florida once, Karsten who was also staying at my hotel with some other people whose names I unfortunately can’t remember right now (sorry, folks!), and Bill and Lesley – brother and sister-in-law of Kathy Pepper of West Virginia. If you remember my Musikfest and Johnstown reviews in earlier issues, I told about meeting the very dedicated Peppers, Charlie and Kathy, at those shows. Lesley was celebrating her birthday that weekend and what better way to celebrate than at a Red Elvises show! Eventually, much later when the night was over, I toddled off back to my hotel and went to sleep.
The next day, since the weather down there was absolutely delightful and much warmer than where I live, after checking out of my hotel I drove down A1A for a while and went to the beach, somewhere between Boynton Beach and Del Rey Beach. I really couldn’t tell you exactly where I was but when I saw the sign for a “state park” type of public beach access, I went for it. For miles all along there I’d seen nothing but large houses with private beaches. Must be nice to be rich, huh? Guess I’ll never know. I hadn’t thought to bring any sort of beach-appropriate clothing or even a towel of ample size, so I rolled up my red corduroys to the knees, put on a tank top and flip flops, and took my tiny little gym towel (smaller than your average hand towel, all I had in my car) and my white Red Elvises t-shirt I had been wearing and walked across the wooden walkway to the beach, camera in hand, of course. It had been a long time since I’d seen the Atlantic Ocean. It looks pretty similar to the Pacific but, of course, no Santa Monica Pier on the Atlantic side, just a lifeguard tower. When I was a kid going to Jacksonville Beach the lifeguard tower there served primarily to warn us when sharks got too close. Yikes, I had forgotten about that possibility on the Atlantic side...but evidently no sharks swam close to land that day. Still, I didn’t go in the water, not for fear of sharks but because I was wearing my good red corduroy pants. I was only there for a couple of hours and it was nice to hear the ocean waves and soak up a little sun. After that I was off again...on to Coral Springs, next stop.
It turned out that I picked the right hotel, across from where the private party was being held. Nevermind how I had figured out that the band would probably be lodged there, but I decided I could splurge and allow myself one night of luxury at the Marriott. And it was a lovely lovely hotel with big cushy beds (my room had a king!) that made me want to just dive right in and snuggle. But first things first – the lingering beach sand had to go! The Marriott has lovely bathrooms too, with wonderful water pressure and big thick towels...yum. I mean, after Motel 6 and a charming, if completely non-luxurious, bed and breakfast, I was just happy to be somewhere where you didn’t have to wear shoes constantly to walk on the carpet and couldn’t read through the towels. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to get me going.
Anyway.... So at this point I didn’t know if Our Favorite Band was there yet or even for absolute sure if they were staying in that hotel but I was feeling quite luxuriated, if that’s really a word. I freshened up and left my room to go down and get something to eat, and, timing being everything, there was Adam standing in the hall talking on his cell phone! Seven floors in that big fancy hotel and I had the luck to not only choose the right hotel but end up on the same floor just down the hall from the guys I was there to see! How cool was that? We hugged hello and he told me which rooms were the other guys’ and said I should knock on their doors. I knocked on one door but no one answered. I have this fear of disturbing people, either on the phone or in person, so it’s possible that I didn’t knock loud enough. I went and knocked on another door Adam had said was one of theirs and Aaron answered the door and invited me in. Soon Adam came in there too and we all talked while they got dressed. I offered to wait outside but modesty wasn't really an issue (nothing major came off, haha), so.... okay, no big deal there. It was an early show, early party, and they were going right over there to do it, across the grass that borders the golf course. It was a private party, a birthday party, so I didn’t go but it turned out that they were playing outside on a terrace and while I couldn’t see them due to distance, bushes, trees, building columns and so on, I could hear them loud and clear from the pool area of the hotel so I enjoyed that quite a lot.
But first I went down and treated myself to a nice dinner, then went out by the pool, where I happily lounged on a beach chair quietly singing along and wishing I had thought to bring a sweater or light jacket out there to help shield me from the wind. After a while I decided to go back up to my room and freshen up a little, brush my teeth and so on. I came back down to the pool just in time to hear the beginning of “Belly Dance” and I danced by the pool. No one was out there but me. Then they took about a half-hour break and I went looking around the hotel gift shop because of course I can never get enough of shopping. Later I went back outside and heard them starting to play again. Discovering a gate at the back of the pool area and not having anything better to do really, I walked out onto the grass past the palm trees and across the field to the edge of the bushes, just to see if I could see the guys playing at all. I kinda could, but not well enough to stand there for any length of time....I felt like security might come along and think I was a trespasser any minute, plus the word “stalker” popped into my head, yowie! So I walked back over to the jacuzzi by the pool and enjoyed the rest of the show listening from there. I was told the next day by the gift shop clerk that from time to time alligators were seen out there in the grass near the golf course! Yikes! I sure am glad I didn’t cross paths with one of those, since gator wrestling wasn’t something I went to Florida prepared to do! I’ve heard they can run pretty fast!
It sounded sort of like a Rusty’s show with all the songs they did at the party; they played for about three hours and included old favorites like “Suzanna,” “Flaming Cheese” and “Scorchi Chornye,” as well as Chris Isaak’s hit “Wicked Game” along with probably all or most of the songs they did at The Bamboo Room. When I heard them finish playing I went back inside the hotel and soon Oleg came in, on his way to change clothes. He hugged me hello and questioned why I hadn’t gone to the party, and when he came back downstairs after changing he said “Let’s go...” so I went with him over to the party then, trying to get an idea along the way of whether or not anyone would mind me being there. I had thought the party would be fancy dress, with “little black dresses” everywhere, but it was more informal than that so my comfy brown pants and top fit in all right I guess. It was nice and the people Oleg introduced me to as “the president of our fan club...” (a title that always makes me laugh...) were very nice as well. Oleg, Roman and I did a couple of tequila shots and drank some beer. I never drank tequila much before starting to drink at shows with Oleg but now I’m kinda liking tequila a little, I should admit. Later, I helped them get some stuff over to the van (rental van, not Big Red, which was in California) and hung out some with Roman, Adam and Aaron after first Igor and then Oleg left the party to head back over to the hotel and go to sleep. Eventually those three guys and I all ended up in the bar area of the hotel, along with some of the party guests, drinking, talking and laughing, until one by one we all turned in for the night.
The next morning I checked out of the hotel and then sat in the bar area drinking coffee and trying to find something to read in the local paper. Roman came into the area, got a Coke and then sat down with me to hang out and talk, and soon Aaron, followed in a little while by Adam, found their way downstairs too. Eventually Igor’s face appeared over the second floor railing directly above me as he called down “good morning!” and grinned at us below. He, and then Oleg, came downstairs and Oleg went to put stuff in the van and bring it around to the front. I told him I wanted to follow them to Ft. Lauderdale (not exactly the ends of the earth but close; Oakland Park is a northern suburb) and we were off.
It was Sunday, November 27th, another glorious day, weather-wise, and we eventually found our way to a diner where we had lunch...or breakfast, depending on which part of the menu each person used. Adam invited our waitress to the show that night at Alligator Alley and she seemed quite interested. Igor told her the name of the band when she asked, and I chimed in telling her that they were great and that she’d have a good time.
After eating we got in our respective vehicles again and headed off to find Motel 6, which I told Oleg I had seen but didn’t remember exactly where along that road. He finally found it and we booked rooms there. Almost everywhere we were traveling in South Florida there was evidence that hurricanes had been through the area, most recently Hurricane Wilma. Some trees were broken, signs were missing, debris was gathered by roadsides and at our motel there were a lot of trucks with work crews who had come there, some from far away states, to help with cleanup and restoration efforts. It was scary to think that wind and rain, basically, could do so much damage. Later, I opened a cold beer that Roman had managed to find somewhere and had given me because I’d mentioned how much nicer the pool would be if I had a beer to drink while sitting out there. I poured it into two plastic cups and put the cups into the lovely Motel 6 ice bucket so as not to be obvious that I was Consuming Alcohol in Public or whatever and went out to try to find some ambiance by the pool. It wasn’t the Marriott but at least there were palm trees along the front. Aaron was out there and we ended up watching a flock of some sort of dark-appearing birds flying lazily around on air currents high up in the sky. It was nice by the pool at first but a little while after Aaron left the wind sort of picked up so I went back into my room to relax.
I was invited by Oleg to ride to Alligator Alley with them in the van so around 7:00pm we headed out. It was really nice to not have to drive the eight or so miles up to Oakland Park. Alligator Alley is a small but very funky-cool place that serves the best Louisiana-style gumbo ever. They’ve actually won awards for the gumbo there so I really wanted to try it. The small stage is just inside the door in front of a window. There is a long bar, a grill and kitchen where food is prepared and some tables, chairs and bar stools. Nice people run the place and work there. Not a very large area for dancing but a nice crowd packed the place and managed to find enough space to dance anyway.
The guys set up and did their sound check, always a cool part of things because it means the show is coming soon so get ready for it! Igor set up a small amount of merchandise outside just on the other side of the window and did the selling himself. While they were onstage the guy collecting money at the door kept an eye on the stuff. I had some beer and later we all ate some dinner. Then I had some more beer and soon the show began. They again started with “Lovepipe” and went on to play a similar two sets to what they had played on Friday night, including: “Telephone Call From Istanbul,” “I’m Not That Kind of Guy,” “Love Rocket,” “Ticket to Japan,” “Strip Joint is Closed,” “Sad Cowboy Song” and “I Wanna See You Belly Dance.”
Sometime near the end of the first set I discovered that my camera was in the middle of breaking! It suddenly displayed the message "System Failure" and wouldn't turn off. During the break Oleg tried to help me fix it, saying his camera had broken once the same way. He took the battery out of it and then put it back in...that helped, until I tried to use the zoom again and the error message came on again. I finally figured out that it would work as long as I didn't try to use the zoom, so all during the second set I had to make sure I got close to take pictures. Fortunately, that wasn't a problem. Take a look at the Photos section to see what you think. Now I have to add "new camera" to my list of pricey things I need to buy. Where's that winning lottery ticket?
After the break they once again started the second set with “200 Flying Girls,” throwing in “My Darling Lorraine” this time for a nice bit of variety, and then continued with “It’s a Wonderful Night (To Fall in Love),” “Memoirs of a Phuket Geisha,” “Ukranian Dance #13,” “Juliet,” “Closet Disco Dancer” ("The correct motion is up, up and UP!”) and “Rocketman.” A slightly shorter show but a powerful one all the same, filled with lots of energy and fun. The crowd was really into it and seemed to have a great time seeing Red Elvises play.
I talked to some long-time loyal fans of theirs as well as one or two people who were experiencing them for the first time and I saw a lot of smiles on a lot of faces. One of the people I met at Alligator Alley was Eric from Red Chat. It was fun to meet someone I've chatted with about Our Favorite Band. After the show the band and I hung out in the bar for a while, drinking, talking to people and just generally having a good time. Of course, a good time is pretty much guaranteed when you’re in the company of these guys. Want a good time? Go to a Red Elvises show!
The next day, Monday, we were all homeward-bound. They had a midday flight back to L.A. and I had a long drive ahead of me, but the luck of timing was on my side again and I had the chance to say goodbye to them before they headed to the airport and I got back on I-95 to head north for my eleven-hour trek.
I’m really glad I went to Florida to see Red Elvises. I had so much fun dancing, drinking, selling, drinking, taking pictures, drinking, talking to people and just hanging out (drinking)...Um, maybe I drank a little too much? Well, anyway, it’s always great to see those guys. Next month I’m going down there again, to Tampa (Igor called me crazy for that but he smiled when he said it...), and that show at Skipper’s Smokehouse will not only be the first time I get to see the legendary Skipper’s but my 100th Red Elvises show. So if you’re in the Tampa area or can get there the night of December 23rd I hope to see you at Skipper’s. Red Road Trips Rule!
 Alligator Alley, Oakland Park, FL |
 The Bamboo Room, Lake Worth, FL |