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Red Road Trip:
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Who amongst us hasn’t been misled by an airline at least once in our lives? If you fly enough, it’s bound to happen sooner or later...you innocently arrive at the airport in plenty of time only to be told your aircraft isn’t up to the job...expect a different plane arriving later, a four-hour delay or so...and then other stuff happens. Flights get missed when airplanes take off without their trusting passengers... And that’s the sort of airline mishap that happened on Friday, March 24th to Our Favorite Band, resulting in the Skipper’s show having to be cancelled on the night of Friday, March 24th and rescheduled for Sunday, March 26th at 1:00pm. |
I drove down to Tampa again, of course, because I’ve discovered I have a new addiction...to Skipper’s Smokehouse, one of the coolest rock ‘n roll venues ever. That and the memory of the oysters I ate there with the guys the last time was dancing around in my mind. So off I went, being the road warrior that I am, and the drive was long but basically uneventful.
I went down there a day early to have time to pick up some things I bought from someone on eBay in the area so I was in Tampa on Friday around mid-day when I heard from friends that Oleg was trying to reach me. I’d been shopping that morning and I guess the signal wasn’t getting through to my cell phone enough to make it actually ring. I looked at it and sure enough, I had three messages, one of which was from Oleg. He needed me to pick up Roman at the airport. Lucky Roman was flying in from Dallas and had not had to deal with LAX and their “your plane can’t fly yet...oh wait, yes it can! You’re not here? Oh well...” nonsense. At first we hoped that the guys could still make it in time for the show that night but as the shocking story developed it turned out that they were stuck in L.A. with no hope whatsoever of flying out until around 11:00pm that night. In the meantime, I picked up Roman and his saxophones (regular and baritone), clarinet, flute and luggage and took him to the hotel to check in. We hung out there for a few hours and talked and drank water (at first) by the pool and then beer at the bar when the sunny but windy Florida weather proved too cold for me to keep sitting outside. (Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m a wuss when it comes to cold wind...). It was nice having the chance to get to know Roman a little better. There’s more to him than a wacky sense of humor and extreme sax talent, girls (yes, I said “sax” – get your minds out of the gutter!)...he’s a very cool guy, and attention, Texas girls, he’s single!
Later I went back to my friend Lori’s house and had an early and restful night. The next morning, Saturday the 25th, she had things to do and places to go, so I went back to the hotel in hope of saying hi to the guys before they went to Sarasota for the private party they were booked at that night. I was excited to see them again; I’d last seen them on New Year’s Eve weekend.
I hung out with Roman and accepted his kind offer of a beer at 11:15am (hey, who’s telling time when beer is offered?!) while we waited for the guys to arrive. After a while Oleg-Schramm came up to Roman’s room and then we all went down and met Igor, Oleg and Adam in the TGI Friday’s restaurant connected to the hotel. It turned out that they were all getting rooms at that hotel and since Lori was going to be out most of the evening I decided to get a room there too. Lunch was a lot of fun (you don’t want to know what we ate, do you? ‘Cos I can only remember that I had a salad, Adam had a salad and Igor had ribs and gave me two of them...we had beer too...but I don’t really have to tell you that, huh? You could figure it out for yourself, I’m sure... Okay, glad that’s settled, heh heh.).
After lunch they all went to take naps before heading to Sarasota and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry down the street to see the Bodies exhibition. If you haven’t heard of that, it’s awesome...especially if you’re into medicine or science or anything else that involves the study of the human body. There’s a website but it doesn’t tell much about the exhibit... www.bodiestheexhibition.com (but I'm not linking it because it has nothing to do with Red Elvises and I don’t want you wandering off from this fascinating write up... heh heh... so type it into your browser and check it out later – who says the Red Pages isn’t educational?!). I spent an hour and a half or so happily looking at bodies without skin, body parts and other odd things like that and then went back to the hotel with the latest check-in time I’ve ever encountered (4:00pm!) to check in and put my stuff in my room. That night I experimented with a new hairstyle, of sorts, and then went driving around looking for a Ross Dress for Less. It’s my one girly vice, shopping...what can I say? I never found it but way out on I-75 I did find some factory outlet stores so I bought a pair of red pants, a couple of birthday cards, got something to eat and drove back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep. I didn’t hear from the guys or see them at the hotel so I figured they must’ve been tired when they got back from the private party in Sarasota.
The next morning after getting dressed for the show and checking out of the hotel I went back to Lori’s and we went to Skipper’s early to set up the merchandise I’d brought with me. She had hangers, stickers to make price signs and a plan to make a cool display. I supplied sharpies and boxes of shirts and CDs. Chris, whose birthday weekend it was, arrived with his son Rory and Rory’s girlfriend Alyson and they all helped me carry in the rest of the boxes. After the merchandise display was set up and looked scrumptious, we went inside the restaurant part of Skipper’s to have some lunch.
I ordered beer, oysters and calimari. Had to have more of those oysters I had last time I was there! Even though Oleg wasn’t there yet I was pretty sure I remembered his instruction on how to eat them from the last time. I enjoyed the company of some friends and after a little while the guys arrived and we hung out some before the show.
And now to the part you really want to read about... The SHOW!! I forgot to have a pad and pen handy to write down the songs, so hopefully I didn’t miss writing down any of the first few... I ran back to the merchandise table to grab a sharpie and a bumper sticker to write on (the back of it). I don’t recommend misusing Red Elvises’ bumper stickers in that way, of course, but it was all the “paper” I could find at the moment so it had to do, even though there are much better uses for those stickers! Like sticking them on your bumper or maybe your butt! So do that instead, buy them and stick them on important things! Heh heh. The songs they did, as best I could write them down, were:
Set #1:
“Lovepipe,” “Telephone Call From Istanbul,” “Gypsy Heart,” “Love Rocket,” “Ticket to Japan,” “Strip Joint is Closed,” “Sad Cowboy Song”and “I Wanna See You Bellydance.”
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Set #2:
“200 Flying Girls,” “Natasha Singing Reggae,” “Memoirs of a Phuket Geisha,” “Ukranian Dance #13,” “Night Butterfly,” “Scorchi Chorniye,” “My Love is Killing Me” (played especially for Chris, along with a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" earlier in the show) and two encores, “Rocketman,” and “Closet Disco Dancer.”
The “vibe” of the crowd was absolutely terrific, a small intimate gathering of maybe a couple hundred people...maybe more, maybe less, I’ve never been very good at counting crowds. But everyone seemed really into it and there was dancing and finger waving on “Closet Disco Dancer” and plenty of shouts of “woooooh!” and “yeah!” in response to the question Igor kept asking, “Are you having fun?!” We sure were!! One thing I particularly enjoyed was how there were little fits of giggling breaking out in the audience here, then there, then over there, all during the “Phuket hooker” song (“Memoirs of a Phuket Geisha,” to be formal about it). It’s so nice when a crowd really “gets” that song and appreciates the humor in it! Girls came up and danced onstage for “Belly Dance” as is traditional, although I’m not sure that anyone actually formed a conga line for “Sad Cowboy Song.” The band did their group drum solo thing though, and everyone loved it. Oleg had told me Friday on the phone, “Roman’s bringing his BIG saxophone.” And he sure did, a big baritone sax, which he played when he wasn’t playing his other sax or clarinet or flute. Oleg-Schramm kept the keyboard and accordion humming, Adam kept us moving with his drumbeats and everyone quietly accepted Oleg’s regular bass, or at least I didn’t hear anyone ask where the balalaika was (remember? It doesn’t like to fly...). Oleg sounds great no matter what he plays, and everyone knows that. Igor was in fine form too, putting his guitar on his head as he often does, making the girls scream, going down to his knees at one point, just generally making sure we all had a good time. He wore his black and white zebra-striped suit, while Oleg sported a new brown print one, very sharp, both of them! Everyone onstage seemed to be having as good a time as all of us down below, and when that vital energy bounces back and forth you can really feel it – another magical good-time fired-up Red Elvises show!
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It was, after all, a pretty good turnout for a Sunday afternoon and I’m sure everyone enjoyed it immensely. Who, after all, can have a bad time at a Red Elvises show? The guys kicked ass; they sounded fantastic, and there was such a feeling of happiness emanating from the stage, it was a beautiful thing. Just pure joy from the stage to the crowd and back again. When people are doing what they love to do and what they’re truly excellent at doing it comes through in every way, in their smiles, their dancing, their eye contact with the crowd, and most of all, in their playing. And they played that show for all it was worth; they did an amazing job. But then, they’re Red Elvises so of course they would entertain us with a high degree of love, high spirits and joy while rocking the house! They always do!
So all was well that ended well, in spite of the airline’s best efforts at mucking things up. After the show we hung out in the restaurant part of Skipper’s talking and waiting until it was time for the guys to head for the airport for their flight home that night. Oleg was tired, apparently, and took a nap on the edge of a table. Igor ate crawdaddies while socializing. Roman had to go to the airport earlier than the rest of them since his flight was to his home, Dallas, so a very nice girl, Hitome from Seattle (sorry if I didn’t spell her name right...), was kind enough to take him and then came back to Skipper’s afterwards. The guys still there signed two Red Elvises white XL Star t-shirts for me, so look for those soon on eBay, to be auctioned off with the band’s permission and enthusiasm (most of the proceeds go to them, not me, so bid!! You’ll be glad if you win one! Search for “Red Elvises”). Eventually all good things must come to an end and so did our afternoon and evening at Skipper’s – it was time for Our Favorite Band to go catch their flight home so we went out to the rental van and said our goodbyes. Hopefully they had an easier airline experience going home than they had coming to Tampa.
And me? I drove all night, leaving Tampa about 8:00pm and arriving home at exactly 6:30am the next morning, tired and bleary-eyed but happy. Every minute of the drive and the stay in Tampa was worth it and I had a lot of fun. Be sure to check their tour schedule often to see if they’re playing near you or maybe within a ten and a half hour drive! The road is never too long to a Red Elvises show.
 Lori and Chris enjoying the show |
 Yours Truly and K-Dog also enjoying the show |