Igor & The Red Elvises will perform Saturday at the Brewery Arts Center’s Levitt AMP Concert Series.
You’ll want to dance, and you’ll probably want to laugh with Igor & The Red Elvises when the quirky band comes to Carson City on Saturday. This is the last Levitt AMP show of the year in Carson City presented by the Brewery Arts Center.
The band plays its unique blend of music that takes sounds from Eastern European folk music and blends them to deliver a funky dance party. Bandleader Igor Yuzov said Carson City better get ready for a party. He said there’s lots of audience participation in the show and that’s what the band really likes about playing live.
“It is 150 percent a party,” he said. “It’s people dancing, participating, they are screaming and they’re having fun and singing along. When a couple thousand people are doing silly moves, it’s fun.”
Yuzov said it will be his first time playing in Carson City and he loves playing in new places.
“It’s something new and I’m pretty excited,” he said. “I heard there are pretty good crowds.”
He’s excited to be the last band on the Levitt AMP lineup and hopes it will be a show to remember for everyone.
“I think we’ll make it pretty memorable and unique, so I’m sure they will like the show,” he said.
Yuzov was born in Germany, then raised in the Ukraine and studied in Russia. He left Russia as soon as it became possible, and he came to the United States. The music is influenced by the sounds of Eastern European, Russian, surf and rockabilly music. He says the band also blends in reggae, rock and pop. The music has been labeled by others as “Siberian Surf Rock.” The band features Yuzov on guitar/keys/vocals, Shannon Tobin on bass balalaika, Peter Grebunyuk on guitar and Dante Goglia on drums.
“It’s just very eclectic music,” Yuzov said.
His background and living in several places helped shape the music he wanted to create, and when he moved to America, he wanted to stand out and be unique from other bands.
“When I came here, I realized not many bands sound like this and I said, ‘Why not?’” he said. “We’ll go all the way using lots of Eastern European beats and melodies and chord structures and all that. That definitely makes it a unique sound.”
Yuzov said his decision to play rock and roll in America came to him in a dream from Elvis in 1995. He said the King came to him in a dream and that has helped shape the band and the direction Yuzov took it. The band was playing street performances in Santa Monica until the crowds grew too large and they had to discontinue the street performances.
“There was a great dream, and it changed my life. It really helped me,” he said.
Igor and the Red Elvises have produced 12 studio albums and Yuzov said they just got out of the studio after recording for a new album. The band has contributed songs to films as well, which helped launch their career. The band had a song in “Six String Samurai” in 1998. “Boogie on the Beach” was used for that film.
“The movie has a cult following and lots of people know us from that movie,” Yuzov said. “In our early days it definitely helped us.”
They’ve also been featured in other films such as “Mail Order Bride,” Armageddon,” “Skippy,” “Melrose Place,” “Fastlane,” “Penn and Teller’s Sin City Extravaganza” and on VH1 and MTV.
Yuzov said you’ll really want to catch this show to cap off the summer of free concerts. He encourages everyone to come out.
“Just tell everybody to show up,” he said. “If they don’t, they will regret it for the rest of their lives. So, they better come and dance and have fun.”
WHAT: Igor & the Red Elvises with opening act The Sun Rays at the Brewery Art Center’s Levitt AMP Concert Series
WHERE: 449 W. King St. at the Brewery Arts Center
WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24
MORE INFO: breweryarts.org; www.redelvises.com