Jet Setters: Bringing the aloha

March 3, 2011

Tracy Chan,

The Jet Setter team. From left: Nicole Jones (graphic design and web promotions), Patrick Leonard (web master, graphic & web design), Devon DeAngelo (public relations and sponsorship), Joe Agogo (executive producer, team leader), Johnny Botello (events coordinator), and Kristen Melehan (operations manager).

You might have heard about The English Beat concert this Sunday at SoHo, but chances are you haven’t heard about who’s behind it. There’s a reason for that. It’s fledgling promotion company Jet Setter Productions’ first show, and they’re entering the arena by bringing in the iconic, old-school British ska/punk band to play two shows; one on Maui and one on Oahu.

While some members of the team, all in their 20s and 30s, have promotions experience or are members of the service industry, it’s a very eclectic gathering of young people united by a common goal — to enrich the local music scene in whatever way they can. The company is spearheaded by veteran punk/indie rock promoter Joe Agogo, who has been throwing local punk, rock and indie shows, DJ nights and a variety of other events, including movie nights and a fashion show or two, since the ’90s.

I met up with the Jet Setter team at the house that two of the members live in. The bright orange walls, vinyl collection and exotic animal-print couches spoke of creative, unconventional minds at work, but the really eye-catching feature of the living room was a giant, stylized portrait of David Bowie that one of their other roommates painted.

“It’s all totally informal. We’re all friends” Agogo said. “This is our headquarters. Isn’t it cool?”

Yes, it is. Very cool. I had a really hard time tearing my eyes away from Bowie. The group gathered on the back lanai, and over beer and poke, we talked.

The name “Jet Setter” came about with a Facebook message Joe Agogo left for Devon DeAngelo, (a UH Communications major who has studied internationally and now handles PR for the team) upon hearing that she was returning to the states after going to school in France. After calling her a “jet setter,” Joe sat back and realized that was the perfect name for the promotions company he’d been thinking of starting for quite a while.

Originally, “Jet Set” was a term coined in the ’50s by Igor Cassini, a journalist for the Hearst newspaper chain, to describe the social elite who traveled regularly to stylish and exotic places by plane. The concept was one that the mod subculture took to heart and applied, resulting in a snappily dressed subculture of young people with an inordinate affection for African American soul, Jamaican ska, British beat music and R&B, French art films and Italian motor scooters. A melting pot of eclectic tastes, kind of like our local scene.

“What we have in mind are bands of every subculture genre,” Agogo said. “We have connections to the Mainland punk rock scenes, the indie scene in LA (the folks who produced the GRLFRNDS and Jump Offs’ albums) and more… we’re getting offered options. Part of why we chose English Beat is because we want to get a wide age demographic. We want to touch the youth, and people who are older, as well as the usual scene.”

The bands that Jet Setters aim to bring in include small-to-medium-sized touring bands of the alternative persuasion who might not have enough money or connections, or who wouldn’t likely have thought to come to Hawaii. If you’ve ever heard of NYC indie electronica duo Ratatat, Seattle garage punk band Murder City Devils, San Fran one-man garage pop act Nobunny or ’80s garage punk band The Mummies, you can start getting excited now. They’re among the bands that Jet Setters have their eyes on.

“Most of these bands are mid-level bands in their local cities. They’re expanding, putting out their CDs, starting to tour the US and get to that point where they’re gaining national exposure, and we want to jump on that,” said events coordinator Johnny Botello, a cook at The Contemporary Museum who doubles as a promoter for the local rock and punk scene.

“What we’re shooting for is to be like Golden Voice in its early days, or to bring back the same type of cultural enrichment that Radio Free Hawaii brought to us,” Agogo said.

The other part of the Jet Setters concept, and part of the way they hope to grow, is a unique approach to hosting the bands they bring over. “We’re gonna take these guys around, show them an insider’s view of the island. We’re gonna take them hiking, take them to the local restaurants, get them out of Waikiki and give them the real, street-level local’s experience,” Agogo said.

A promotion company that’s as much a cultural exchange as it is a marketing device? So appropriate for Hawaii.

“What we’re really giving back is aloha,” Agogo said. “And that’s a product you can market to the rest of the world. I just want it to be a good experience for everybody.”

—