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| SCOTT GULLEDGE / Scroll |
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Elvis has left the building.
With big red letters reading ELVIS acting as the backdrop, the same type of backdrop that was used at Elvis Presley’s 1968 Comeback concert, impersonator Mike Albert got a little emotional at the Elvis Returns concert.
Mike Albert, an Elvis Presley impersonator from Columbus, Ohio, and The Big E Band performed for students and parents dressed in a white and gold Elvis costume, Saturday night in the Hart Auditorium. Albert catered his performance to mothers because of it being Mothers’ Weekend.
“I’m going to sing a song here tonight that if Elvis were here he would sing. ‘The Wonder of You,’ for your mothers,” Albert said.
Albert incorporated a lot of audience participation, from getting moms to do the twist to getting men to sing along with him into the microphone, often awarding them with a colored silk scarf as a keepsake.
“I’ve been practicing Elvis all year,” said Hailey Berry, 8, from Rexburg, Idaho, who was dressed up in a poodle skirt and scarf.
During intermission there was an Elvis look-alike contest that four young men participated in, all dressed up in sunglasses and sideburns. The Elvis impersonator in a gold jacket, calling himself Kenny G, won the contest by singing part of My Way.
During “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Jailhouse Rock” dozens of audience members spontaneously got up in the isles and danced together all around the Hart Auditorium.
“I thought it was amazing,” said Sarah Louise Gogarty, 13, from Colorado Springs, Colo. “I wanted to get up on the stage and dance.”
When Albert sang “Love Me Tender” to an older lady in the crowd, she spoke up when he finished singing and told the audience that she got her picture in the newspaper years ago when she went to see the movie Love Me Tender in the theaters.
Anna Lloyd from Archer, Idaho, wore her class of ’56 sweater to the Elvis Returns concert. Lloyd said Elvis was in his prime when she was in her prime.
“He showed a class to Elvis. He was the true expression of Elvis,” Lloyd said.
After Albert’s closing number Battle Hymn medley the audience screamed and clapped until Albert and The Big E Band came back on to the stage where they did “Trouble” as a encore.
“Elvis didn’t do encores,” Albert said after the show. “They cheered so loud. Usually audiences clap and then leave. But we just had to come out again.”
Some audience members were surprised at how good the show was.
“I wasn’t a real Elvis fan before. But now I am,” said Jennifer Kieth, a mother from Orem, Utah.
Mitchell Fox, the keyboardist of The Big E Band said he was impressed with how the audience cut loose.
“It was awesome. Completely awesome,” Fox said.
