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Oleg asked me in the van on the way back to Venice from Huntington Beach when I was in California in November, “Are you going to our show in Tampa on December 16th?” To which I replied, “You know I will! Yes, I will drive ten hours or so to see you guys play one night, of course!” I had actually planned on that from the first moment I heard there would be another Skipper’s show, when we were at Skipper’s on October 28th. And then when the big day arrived, I made it down there in a blazing eight hours and about 46 minutes, driving like the illegally-speeding wind. I ended up going on Friday, December 15th because I found out there was a private party down there that night (I wasn’t planning to crash that since I couldn’t get there early enough anyway...) with the possibility of some hanging out afterwards. Plus, that way I could be well rested for Saturday activities! |
I got to the hotel a little after 8:00pm that Friday night and checked in. Since the private party was supposed to end at 8:00, Oleg had told me earlier, I started throwing on makeup like a maniac and even pampered myself with some nice-smelling powder and lotions. After a little while my friend Chris, who was at the private party with them, called and said they’d decided to do an extra set. Okay, no problem. I laid on the bed happily anticipating seeing them again. It had been less than a month since I’d last seen them, in southern California, but I’m always crazily excited like a maniac to see Red Elvises, you know me. Time passed. Some more time passed. I called Chris to see what was happening then. He called me back to say they were socializing some with the party guests. That was cool... the Red Elvises guys are very sociable people. I was still happily anticipating seeing them and looking out the door at every noise like an overexcited weinie-head.
Around 11:00pm I woke up from slightly dozing for a few minutes and thought I heard something outside. I tell you, it was more exciting than waiting for Santa Claus! I went to the door and opened it. Peeking out, I saw some familiar people down in the parking lot below getting stuff out of a blue minivan. Contact was imminent; I was about to have another close encounter of the Red Elvises kind! Making sure I had my keycard, I hurried downstairs to say hello.
Wanna party with Russians (and one ex-patriot Minnesotian and one sax player of Ukrainian descent – yes, Roman had flown in from Texas to play with them!)? Bring beer! It was so lovely to see them again... and I hadn’t seen Roman since March. They all hugged me hello and the funniest thing was that Oleg and Roman both went to hug me at the same time, and Roman said “Oh, hug me first, you love me best!” He’s such a funny guy! My friend Chris had arrived in the middle of all this happiness so it was great to see him again too! Igor said he was tired and going straight to bed so I hugged him and his guitar (which was on his back) goodnight. The rest of us, except for Adam, who disappeared for a while and made a brief, rather buzzed, appearance later, headed for my room where the beer I’d brought down was chilling in the mini fridge. There followed much merriment and photo ops... I’ll leave it to your imagination but it was a lot of fun, sitting around talking and laughing, with many very dead-on Borat impressions by Roman and Oleg.
Roman and Oleg, two wild and crazy guys!
The next day I think I got up around 10:00am and started getting ready to go to Skipper’s for lunch with the guys (as in previous write ups, including Elena in the generic term “guys” here). We went around 2:00pm I seem to recall, with me following their crazy-small rental minivan. I still don’t understand how they got five people, merchandise and all their stuff in there! It was great to be at Skipper’s again, the best venue in Florida. We went into the bar side of the restaurant and sat at the same table where we sat last year in December. Some of the faces this year were different; Roman was along, we had Elena instead of Oleg-Schramm and Chris was there but Lori wasn’t available that afternoon (missed you at lunch, Lori!). Other than that it was the usual suspects – Igor, Oleg, Adam, the afore-mentioned Elena, Roman and Chris, and yours truly. The food was mostly the same, massive quantities of oysters on the half shell (yum!) and crawdaddies (I’m loving them more each time, Skipper’s Louisiana Mudbugs, oh yeah!), and of course there was beer. Do I even need to say that?
A little known fact: Roman is afraid of crawdaddies! Or maybe he just doesn't like them. He had to leave our table area and go sit at the bar when we started eating them (well, okay, I did wave my biggest one around a little in his direction, I admit!). No amount of pleading would entice him back to the table! We had fun there though, just eating, drinking and talking. We didn’t take any pictures during lunch this year but we listened to some really kick ass blues music (Tab Benoit, check it out sometime) and were grooving on that.
On my way back to the hotel I stopped at a mall (appropriately slightly tipsy, which Lori and I discovered last year is the absolute best way to go to any mall during Christmas-shopping time!) to try to find some CDs I wanted. I had no luck, even though, unlike Target, the store I found did at least have a jazz/blues section. I guess I need to find a cooler store that specializes in that type of music. But being a little pressed for time, I looked at a couple of clothing stores briefly, being a girl, and then gave up and went back to my room. My new friend, Rebecca, who I met in the Red Elvises Chat Room the previous Tuesday night, and who shares my birthday (month and day, anyway), was on her way from the extreme south of Florida and when she arrived at my door we hit it off immediately. She had her tiny little Maltese dog, Lily, with her, one of the most adorable dogs I ever met! So Rebecca and I fell into girl talk right away, discussing what to wear, how to do our hair and so on, and in no time she was putting eye makeup on me. For you guys out there, that’s a female bonding thing, much like grunting at sports on TV over a beer. Ah, now you get it! Right!
Knockdown South, Jimbo Mathus' band
Igor had said earlier that he wanted to be at Skipper’s that night in time to see the opening band, which was the VERY BEST band, in my opinion, to ever open for them: Knockdown South, fronted by Jimbo Mathus, once the frontman for the highly acclaimed Squirrel Nut Zippers. The Zippers, I’ve been told, were absolutely huge in Russia (and pretty popular in the U.S. too, if you remember their song “Hell” and the gold record they got for it... that song was also the theme for the way-too-short-lived Showtime series “Dead Like Me,” which I loved to death, no pun intended... Oh all right, pun sort of intended...). And ironically enough, my cell phone ringtone happens to be “Hell.” (“Belly Dance” wasn’t available as a ringtone for some reason). But that was then, and now Jimbo’s band is Knockdown South, which has a completely different sound and a great one, which you should definitely check out if you like blues music or want to get into that type of music, because this is some of the finest Mississippi Delta blues you’ll ever hear. Short answer: It’s really cool.
So Knockdown South was playing, Red Elvises were hanging out backstage and elsewhere awaiting their turn and everything was groovy. Rebecca and I hung out backstage some but I was running in and out and around greeting old friends, because Skipper’s for me has become almost as much of a social event as Rusty’s is in California. I see people there that I don’t get to see very often and it’s always a treat. Toward the end of Knockdown South’s set I was walking near the front row of bench seats and saw Igor sitting on the wood-planked floor there watching the show. That seemed like a good idea so I sat down too... Their show ended soon and I have to say it was the first time ever, I believe, that I didn’t really want the opening band to stop playing just yet.
But of course I was very excited to see Red Elvises again, even though I had been lucky enough to have seen them an incredible number of times (um, 8, yes...) this Fall and Winter already. I just can never get enough, I guess. I went to the front and slipped under the rope to get my prime spot by the stage to take pictures as their show began. And how was it, you ask? Oh, it was pretty good.
WHAT?!!!!
Just kidding! It was f**king-A!! Awesome, great, incredible, amazing...you know it was! There just aren’t enough good adjectives in the world to describe Our Favorite Band, especially at a kick ass venue like Skipper’s Smokehouse.
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They started with, I think, “I’m Not That Kind of Guy,” but I could be wrong. They ended with “My Love is Killing Me” and I know that for a fact – I’ll tell you later how. In between...well, I forgot to bring paper and pen with me, having transported every vital item in the pockets of my jeans so I wouldn’t have to bother with a bag that night, so I didn’t write down the songs. They played the usual favorites, though, including “Sad Cowboy Song” with its group drum solo, “Strip Joint is Closed” during which I stole a few kisses off a good friend (thanks, K-Dog, it was fun!), new hot songs “Sweeter Than Champagne” (or whatever Igor’s calling it now...I can’t keep up, heh heh!) and “Drinking with Jesus,” “Gypsy Heart,” “Ticket to Japan” and many others. All the songs caused the crowd to go wild, and it was pretty wild already!
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Eve, who you may remember from years past as one half of the panty-throwing team of Eve and Brett (former Fans of the Month), was there, dressed in a hot pink prom dress and with panties in hand, tossing a pair onto the stage every so often and handing some out to nearby Red Elvisites for the same purpose. She gave me a pair. Not being inclined to throw things onstage, I gave them to my friend K-Dog, who put them on his hat. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to get a photo of that! |
 Emma, one of Red Elvises' younger fans |
 Emma and Lori onstage for "Belly Dance" |
My friend Lori, who last year ate crawdaddies with us at Skipper’s, was helping our friend Chris sell merchandise. With Lori was her seven-year-old Red Elvises-loving daughter, Emma. It was Emma’s very first concert and very first Red Elvises show! She was very excited to be there and even got her picture taken with Igor and Oleg. Later, Lori took her up onstage to dance with all the bigger girls during “Belly Dance.” Even though they were only able to stay for the first set, I’m sure they both had a great time.
This time I didn’t stay in the roped area by the stage but also got out in the first couple of rows of the crowd, with Rebecca, to enjoy the show and take some pictures from the front for a change. That was awesome too. Really, no matter where you are at Skipper’s, as long as you can see the stage you’ll enjoy it and have a great time.
They played two sets as usual and closed the show with a couple of encores, the last of which was Chris’ favorite song, “My Love is Killing Me.” That was when Eve sprang into action...even more action than throwing panties. She, pink prom dress, cowboy hat and all, got up onstage and proceeded to sort of, well... act out some of the lyrics of the song. Especially the “bite marks on my hips” part.
 The approach... |
 The grab from behind... |
 Preparing for "...bite marks on my hips..." |
 Eve? Not so sure what was going on here! |
Oh yeah, she went there. I got up there too, but now I’m not really sure why. One beer too many? Last song excitement? Really, I’m just not sure... I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time. Chris went up there too, right after I did, but it’s his favorite song so he had a good excuse. I think the crowd was surprised at Eve’s antics, especially when she started actually looking like she was going to bite Igor’s hip. Possibly Igor was surprised too... I think he almost laughed while singing. Really, though, last month during a Skipper’s show I saw girls fondling him during “Belly Dance” and now this...I guess nothing really fazes him too badly! He looked good wearing Eve’s hat, anyway, and I guess her bites didn’t go through his pants so all ended well.
And all too soon, it was over... a great time was obviously had by all at this show!
There followed what seemed like a long happy time of hanging out, in and out of the backstage area, while the band packed up their gear and did other band stuff, and of course, also socialized. Rebecca went out to her car, where her tiny dog had been patiently waiting, and brought Lily back in with her. Everyone loved her! She’s a really sweet little dog.
 Elena loves dogs! And Lily loves people! |
 Adam hanging out backstage |
 Igor and Jimbo raise paper cups for cheers! |
 Igor, Jimbo and Oleg - great musicians, much happiness! |
Igor and Oleg were talking to Jimbo Mathus a lot, picking his brain and so on and I finally met him. I had, of course, heard of Squirrel Nut Zippers and their music and liked it very much but somehow with everything going on in my life in the late 1990s (failing relationship, obsession – I suppose you’d call it – with Red Elvises, etc.), I somehow managed to miss out entirely on collecting their CDs, seeing them do any shows or learning the band members’ names...d’oh. And they split up about six years ago, with various lawsuits all around. ‘Nuff said. My first conversation with Jimbo went like this:
Me: “You were in Squirrel Nut Zippers?”
Jimbo: “Noooo!”
Me (slightly confused): "No?"
Igor, sitting next to me, then laughed and that’s when I realized I’d just been fibbed to! But I forgave Jimbo ‘cos he’s one of the coolest dudes ever. He’s from Mississippi and plays the blues now, so just to round out your musical experiences sometime if you want to mix in a little something else with your Red Elvises CDs, check him out. Google works great and will give you plenty of links to Jimbo’s music.
After much beer-drinking, puppy-dog love, crazy conversations and other socializing, we all (except Chris, who went home to hang with his wife and dogs) left Skipper’s and headed back to the hotel. I still had beer in my mini fridge and of course the guys brought more, so the party was in my room again. This time Igor stayed awake for a while and hung out with us. Oleg retrieved Jimbo and we were all happy that he came by to party with us too. It wasn’t all that wild and crazy, nobody got so drunk that they danced on the table or anything (darn it all! No, just kidding...), but it was very nice and I had a great time.
Rebecca and Lily with Igor and Oleg on Sunday, Dec. 17th
The next day, Sunday the 17th, Rebecca and I were out in the parking lot when the guys came down around 1:00pm to leave for the airport. So I took one last picture, of her and Lily with Igor and Oleg, we hugged goodbye all around and they left in their little blue rented minivan. Rebecca and I went to lunch, with Lily smuggled in her dog carry bag (nobody noticed, she was so good!), and then we each had to leave town and get on the road.
What can I say? It was such a great weekend! One of my best Red Road Trips ever! Seeing old friends, making new ones, meeting people, having a delicious lunch of oysters and crawdaddies with great company, experiencing another kick ass awesome Red Elvises show and even being introduced to a terrific blues band opening for them that I plan to see again. Never mind all the beer, eight bottles of which I ended up bringing home! You’ve read here before about what a good time can be had at Skipper’s Smokehouse with Red Elvises, so if you’re in Florida around June 2007 or can get to Tampa then, be sure to come to their next show there. I’ll look for you!
 Kayt with Igor and Oleg at Skipper's |
 Kayt with Jimbo and Igor, afterparty |
 Kayt with Rebecca at Skipper's |