…and speaking of Russian immersion by way of music, another fun Russian band is “Igor and Red Elvises” (www.redelvises.com). Russian-American band, I should say – only one of their songs at this weekend’s show was in Russian, and that was at the prodding of the crowd.
I’ve seen them a couple times in the past and was surprised to see that they had changed their name from “Red Elivses” to “Igor and Red Elvises” (no, no “the”). My first thought was that lead singer, Igor Yuzov, was getting a bit greedy and wanted to take the band in his own direction. So I was skeptical, but happy to see that the band still included gifted drummer, Adam Gust, plus two new members, Kefir Melamed and Milka Ramos.
There was no sign of the trademark giant balalaika, but, as usual, most of the band wore animal print pajamas. I looked them up after the show to find that the name change was not a result of any prima donna issues (from what I could tell), but rather of former band mate, Oleg Bernov, running off to join the circus! www.slavasnowshow.com
As usual, it was a fun show. I must say that the addition of Milka Ramos was a great choice. Her gravelly voice and punk-rock style add a lot of charisma.
