Sat. Jan. 12

   Steve Connolly may look like and sound like Elvis but this Elvis was not not living large. And least when we saw him late last decade at the now-defunct, calcucatedly rowdy club Dick's Last Resort. He'll take his Elvis act to a bigger stage, Berklee Performance Center Saturday Jan. 12, celebrating Elvis' birthday. (He'd have been 78 Jan. 8) This Elvis -- the fit 'n' trim 31-year-old, Winchester-born, Clark University-educated, Las Vegas- based Connolly -- styles himself after the Presley of '56. With his custom-made blue jacket, white shirt, black slacks, and blue suede shoes, this Elvis might have stepped off Elvis' first album cover. Elvis with a pelvis.

     And he has been called the best impersonator in the biz by Aerosmith's Steven Tyler. To which Connolly would say, "Thank you, thank you very much." Between shows at Dick's. Connolly said that Tyler rushing "up to me after a show to shake my hand. That is the peak."

    There's some kitschy patter between songs, but musically, Connolly and his backing quartet are dead-on. "We try to be authentic to the music." What Connolly does is bring dignity to the Elvis guild. When he takes the stage, he says, "I think I'm gonna bleed myself into the music."

    A former art student and church sculpture restorer, Connolly has been one with Elvis since 1993. The top guys can make more than $100,000 annually, he says, and in Vegas, agents tell him he's one of the top five.

     Connolly, who cut his rock 'n' roll teeth in the Boston area, is a numbers guy. He knows 45 Elvis songs and does a "Blue Hawaii" show and a Christmas show. His main work station is the MGM-Grand, where he's done more than 2,000 shows. He gets his black pompadour cut every 4 to 6 weeks. He runs through 11 pairs of blues suedes shoes in a year. A handsome (married) man, Connolly sometimes attracts lady fans who take it all a little too literally, and he'll find himself explaining, "I'm acting, I'm pretending."

     He jokes that his gig is one with career growth -- "you just keep growing into it; gimme another lobster!" -- but adds that a mutation into Fat Elvis later in life would be "too horrific to think of." No bacon-'n'-banana sandwiches for Connolly. No substance abuse either. "I don't drink, smoke, or gamble." Connolly says he just signed a deal to make an aerobics tape: "Elrobics."

    This time, expect a couple of dozen Elvis songs and a "Love Me Tender" dedication to the children and adults of Newtown were were killed or impacted by the Sandy Hook Massacre. Connolly is backed by the D.C. Project band and the show is co-headlined by the great everlasting Boston harpist James Montgomery.

Tix: $60-$45. Starts at 8.
 
136 Massachusetts Ave., 617-266-7745 www.berklee.edu/bpc