Why, Yes, We’ve Been Busy!

Let’s get caught up here:

New Years Eve, we rang in 2022 with our friends at the Fridley Legion!

And New Years Day, we were at Neisens in Savage again!

We even shot some videos. Check out our new videos page!

Back to the Fridley Legion!

We’ll be coming back out to the American Legion in Fridley on Friday, 10/22 from 7:30 to 11:30 PM.

We had a blast there a couple of weeks back – and apparently they did too. Partly because we’re back on Friday, and partly because we’ll be back…

…well, we’ll come back to that in a few weeks.

New Dates in the autumn of 2021!

Private parties, fundraisers, and local events are part of what we do. So far in 2021, we have entertained in suburban Savage, and we have two more booked for Saturday, August 14 and Saturday, August 21. You can discuss having us play at your special event with our lead guitarist, Mitch Bergsimply e-mail him at ElephantInTheRoomBand@gmail.com, or by phone at 651.855.8912.

On Saturday, September 4, we make our first visit to Neisen’s Sport Bar & Grill, located south of the Minnesota River in Savage. We hope that you will make an evening of it, including dinner!

On Saturday, September 29, we return to “Back to the SRO” in Oak Grove (55303), in the the northwestern suburbs. Their food is excellent, and so is our music! Please join us; our first two visits there this year were busy and fun.

If you are a club manager / owner, or organizing a special event or fundraiser, try us! We have plenty of experience with these kinds of events, and we have flexibility tailoring our music for your event and your audience’s tastes. You can talk with Mitch Berg about bringing us to your venue / event. You can e-mail him at ElephantInTheRoomBand@gmail.com, or reach him by phone at 651.855.8912..

We thank you in advance.

EITR debuts at the SRO on March 13

We, Elephant In The Room, will make our debut appearance at Back to the SRO in Oak Grove, Minnesota on Saturday, March 13, 2021. Their menu ranges from starters and kid-friendly fare to prime rib, burgers, lasagna, and several homemade specialties.

We will be bringing some fresh covers, including Bob Seger’s “Main Street” – and if you’re lucky, Mitch will do some of his hilarious tragi-comedic storytelling, with the band playing in A minor behind him.

Back to the SRO is located at 18919 Lake George Blvd NW, Oak Grove MN 55303. Opening chords are at 6 p.m. Join us!

Like We Never Went Away

Well, it’s almost the end of 2020 – a year that started with a couple of good gigs, and yet another crash of our website. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of the crashing, but not the gigs.

We’re actually lucky, in band terms – we’ve had a couple great gigs (and we hope to get pics up soon:

  • Last July, we were out in Lake Crystal, MN for a great, if warm, gig
  • In September, we did the fall festival at Saint Rose of Lima in Roseville, MN.

We’ll hope to have pics up from all of ’em soon!

OK – onward into 2021!

EITR returns to Stillwater Eagles 94

Stillwater Eagles 94 at 14200 60th St North, just off Highway 36 at the Greeley St stoplight

We, Elephant In The Room, will appear at Stillwater Eagles 94 six more times this spring and summer!  Three pairs of dates are on the calendar:

Friday and Saturday
April 5 and 6
8:00 p.m. CT

Friday and Saturday
May 31 and June 1
8:00 p.m. CT

Friday and Saturday
July 12 and 13
8:00 p.m. CT

If you have not dined at Stillwater Eagles 94, not only are their burgers and chicken excellent, but their Ellsworth Cheese Curds are a can’t-miss appetizer.  Please join us there!  No cover charge!

Back to the Outpost!

Elephant in the Room will be back out at the Outpost Bar and Grill this coming Saturday night, October 13, from 9PM to 1AM!

The band performs at Stillwater Eagles 94 on July 27, 2018.
The band performs at Stillwater Eagles 94 on July 27, 2018.

Our real lead singer, Tommy, is on vacation (the gig came up unexpectedly), so we’ll be our old four-piece incarnation.  But that’s never stopped us – and it’ll make people appreciate Tommy all the more!

It’s a fun room, the food is really good, and there should be a nice crowd on a brisk night.

Stop on by and see us!

The Elephant In The Room Experience

(Twin Cities resident John Augustine wrote a review of our July 27, 2018 performance at the old Stillwater Eagles 94 club.  This article is excerpted from that review.)

This band is very capable and entertaining, with an extensive list of songs from the 1950s through the 1990s.  They opened with an enthusiastic rendition of Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns, and Money.”  I had heard them do this before, and Warren Zevon’s songs fit vocalist/lead guitarist Mitch Berg’s range and personality very well.  EITR ventured into previously-unexplored territory for their next song, “Found Out About You” by the Gin Blossoms.  Other songs EITR does particularly well are Golden Earring’s “Radar Love,” “Closer to Free” by the BoDeans, “Bye Bye Love” by The Cars, and material by the Eagles, Tom Petty, Sister Hazel, Wilson Pickett, Ian Hunter, Bob Seger, Bob Marley, Tommy Tutone, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, Stray Cats, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Georgia Satellites, the Steve Miller Band, and the Greg Kihn Band.  A very wide variety.

Lead vocalist Tommy Huynh makes it easier to have more post-1990 songs in their setlist.  Because Tommy’s voice is in tune and powerful enough to be heard over hard-rock music, it frees Mitch to thrash harder on the guitar when he doesn’t have to carry the vocals.

EITR band leader Mitch Berg is a very capable singer, writer, and musician.  You can hear that on his solo album, See Red (by “The Supreme Soviet of Love”).  He can play blues, punk, rockabilly, country, and even some reggae.

Jon Heyer plays rhythm guitar (electric and acoustic) and occasionally, bass guitar on some songs.  He also sings some of the slower, bluesier, pre-1980 songs.

Drummer Paul Yackel can really play and can sing lead on some songs as well.

Torleif Sorenson often stays in the background during performances, but provides whatever texture is needed (bass, keyboards, backing vocals) for a song.  He plays a six-string bass, which is *not* something you see in your average local band.  Since adding keyboards to his live rig, the range of songs Elephant In The Room plays has increased.

Even though they don’t play live for a living, they come off as skilled professionals, not a goof-off novelty.  Elephant In The Room is a good, fun, five-man band, and if you haven’t experienced an EITR show, you should.  Perhaps the best thing that can be said about this kind of band is that the members seem to have a good, whole-is-better-than-the-sum-of-the-parts chemistry.

EITR welcomes Tommy Huynh!

Tommy Huynh joined Elephant In The Room as the new lead vocalist on June 24, 2018.  Already a successful radio producer and engineer, Tommy was previously the lead vocalist of the band Garage Orphans.

With Tommy at the mic, Elephant In The Room’s playlist automatically grows, giving us the ability to perform a whole host of additional music, in a higher gear.