The Velvet Elvis (Chris Barber) is a premier early rock and roll tribute artist. Born in '68 (same year as the Comeback Special and the Live at Folsom Prison album), he said his first words, "pretty lights", looking at the San Francisco Bay, and can rock it in a trim-karate Vegas era jumpsuit if the need arises. He also writes his own rock-a-billy standards, recording and delivering them in jacked up Memphis style.
Chris Barber's Las Vegas roots run deep. His great, great, great grandfather, Charles Wesley Hubbard, was one of the first white settlers of Southern Nevada. His great grandma, Hortense Evans Nelson, sang for FDR at the dedication of the Hoover Dam. His great uncle Tommy played horn for Liberace. His mom, Phyllis Barber, was a Las Vegas Rhythmette, was recently inducted into the Nevada Writer's Hall of Fame for a Las Vegas memoir, "How I Got Cultured" and a collection of short stories with Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe and others. She also saw Elvis' first show ever in Las Vegas at the New Frontier Hotel.
Norm Clarke (Las Vegas Review Journal) said, "[Chris Barber] not only sounds like The King but couldn't resemble him more...and I'd give [him] two thumbs up!"
I've seen Elvis in myriad forms and faces, in taped recordings and on the T-shirts of old women wearing costume jewelry and too much makeup in Memphis. I've seen Elvis on products as diverse as lunchboxes, board games, religious iconography and dinner plates.I've seen Indian Elvis, black Elvis, Chinese Elvis, old Elvis, baby Elvis, fat Elvis, thin Elvis, jumpsuit Elvis, '68 Comeback Elvis, rockabilly Elvis and even Elvis Costello.
I've spent my fair share of time in Las Vegas, land of 10,000 Elvises. And I've borne witness to Val Kilmer's Elvis, Harvey Keitel's Elvis, Don Johnson's Elvis and Kurt Russell's Elvis on screen.
And on Jan. 8 I saw the Velvet Elvis, Chris Barber, who is, hands down, the best Elvis I've seen (save for that Costello guy) live.
Certainly, the stage was perfect for it. It was the King's birthday - he would have been 72 (or is 72, depending on which tabloid you read) - and Barber was at Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret.
Mrs. Buzz and I made a date night of it with dinner at PF Chang's (love their fried rice) and then a short jaunt over to the club in the old D&F Tower.
Stunning.
Through a medley of rockabilly Elvis-era tunes and Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Hank Williams covers, Barber and bassist Michael Baird put together an educational, high-energy romp through the face of early-'50s rock, sprinkled with snippets of sparkling reverie and punctuated with chunks of cabaret-appropriate comedy. As Mrs. Buzz put it: "I haven't had this much fun in months." And we do have lots of fun.
During the show, Barber asked the crowd if there was interest in an Elvis gospel brunch at Lannie's. If he's the Elvis, I'm a bruncher.
It's just another in a long line of reasons to flock to Lannie's...