As one of the towering personalities of the 20th century, Elvis Presley has a birthday that doesn't pass without fanfare.

Born Jan. 8, 1935, the singer will be remembered and celebrated during a concert scheduled tonight at the Northside nightclub Locals Only and another show set Jan. 11 at Pike Performing Arts Center.

Presley's appeal 30 years after his death is no mystery to Wayne Bertsch, who organized tonight's "Elvis Birthday Bash."

"Elvis is rock 'n' roll," Bertsch says. "He represents rebellion and he represents swagger."

At Bertsch's third annual Presley party, Indiana-based musicians will play Elvis tunes in various styles.

At the Pike stop of the "Elvis Birthday Tribute Tour," historic links to Presley's career will be represented by drummer D.J. Fontana and female backing vocalists the Sweet Inspirations.

Award-winning impressionists Shawn Klush, Ryan Pelton and Donny Edwards are billed as star attractions.

"Those are probably the best three of the bunch, and I've seen a lot of them," Fontana says of the singers who've made careers of paying homage to Presley.

Way beyond rockabilly

The annual "Elvis Birthday Bash" at Locals Only isn't a party based on rockabilly authenticity.

On the contrary, show promoter Wayne Bertsch invites a handful of diverse Indiana musicians to interpret the King of Rock 'n' Roll in their own styles.

Punk bands and bluegrass acts participated in 2006 and 2007, and tonight's bill offers the indie rock of Hey Hey Melodica and Little Voice.

"I'm pretty curious to hear how it comes out myself," Bertsch says. "Hey Hey Melodica is kind of like XTC meets the Flaming Lips. Who knows what kind of spin they're going to put on it?"

The Mess Arounds, led by vocalist-guitarist Danny Thompson, return as headliners of the Elvis Birthday Bash for the third consecutive year.

Thompson is known for playing rockabilly in popular party band Bigger Than Elvis.

With the Mess Arounds, he performs soul and R&B songs as popularized in the 1960s and '70s. The band specializes in Las Vegas-era Presley material.

"I like Elvis, but I'm not a huge Elvis fan," Bertsch says. "It's really that I'm a big fan of Danny."

A supporter of Indianapolis musicians through his "Bar Fly" comic strip published each week in Nuvo Newsweekly, Bertsch put a Vegas motif in the poster for this year's show. The show's only rule is that each act plays six Presley tunes within a 45-minute performance.

Stereo Deluxe vocalist-guitarist Jay Elliott is set to appear as a between-act special guest, and Bertsch says there's a chance he'll be in Elvis-appropriate wardrobe.

Drummer recalls life on the road with Presley

Drummer D.J. Fontana made music history as a member of the Blue Moon Boys, the 1950s band that backed Elvis Presley during his ascent to stardom.

Along with guitarist Scotty Moore and bass player Bill Black, Fontana played a supporting role for Presley during performances at the Lyric Theatre in Indianapolis in 1955. On Jan. 11, Fontana will return to Indianapolis for a stop on the "Elvis Birthday Tribute Tour."

Fontana, now 76 and a longtime resident of Nashville, Tenn., worked with Presley into the late 1960s. He wasn't onstage for Presley's final concert on June 26, 1977, at Market Square Arena.

During a recent interview, Fontana talked about life on the road with the young King of Rock 'n' Roll:

Question: Do you remember any visits to Indiana while on tour in the 1950s?

Answer: Not really. Everything moved too quick back then. You get in a car and ride. You set up your stuff and play. You put your stuff away and you drive another 500 miles the next day.

Question: Did you tour in a single automobile?

Answer: Yeah, that's all we had. We didn't have no buses, no planes or no trains. We had one car for everybody and the instruments. It was tight, but we were young and it didn't make that much difference.

Question: What about sound amplification during your shows?

Answer: Well, there wasn't any. Whatever they had in the theater or venue, that's what we had.

Question: Could you hear what was going on?

Answer: Not much. It wasn't the sound system's fault. It was the kids making so much noise. You just had to watch (each other's) hands and feet and see where they were going next.

Question: So, in terms of day-to-day life on tour, did you find that enjoyable?

Answer: Yeah, we had a good time. Like I said, we were young and we could do more than we can now. Everybody was congenial with each other. Well, you have to be when you have four guys traveling up and down the road for 10 weeks at a time. It gets kind of nervy out there.

Question: Did Elvis do any driving?

Answer: Everybody did. Back then, he wasn't any better than us.

Question: When people meet you and they want to know about Elvis and the time you spent with him, what do they typically ask?

Answer: They want to know what kind of guy he was, basically. "Was he a nice guy? He seemed to be a nice guy." Well, he was a nice man. He always treated his fans well. If you said something bad about his fans, he'd whip you. He didn't want anybody to mistreat his fans.

Question: The movie era isn't always considered to be the highlight of Elvis's career. What was it like from your perspective?

Answer: It was OK. Some of the songs are pretty bad. Everybody knew it, including him. He always said, "Guys, these songs aren't the best. But let's do them the best we can. Don't slough them off. Let's do them right."

Question: Of course, it's great that the informal "sit-down" performance from the 1968 TV special is documented for all time.

Answer: They wanted to do a Christmas show, and the producer, Steve Binder, didn't want to do it that way. He had a hard time talking the Colonel (Presley's longtime manager, Tom Parker) into it. Binder finally got Elvis off by himself to explain what he wanted to do. Elvis said, "I like that idea."

Question: I imagine you had as much fun during the taping as it looks.

Answer: We had a great time doing that thing.