Night Lights Weekend Wrapup April 15-17
What an interesting weekend, taken all in stride. Island music and crazy grungy garage-pop-punk, with a side of wild, imaginative Japan-inspired fashion and club-hopping for a good cause. Not the longest weekend I’ve had by any means, but one of the more diverse and interesting, for sure.
Friday, I decided to stay in Chinatown and hit all the spots participating in the Rebuild Japan fundraiser. Anyone else notice how charity fundraisers have become a huge fad after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan? Not saying it’s a bad thing, mind you. It’s something all of us can do to help a little without changing our lives much. But the point is, we’re all very aware, on a constant level, of what happened in Japan. When I was on the Mainland, I visited at least two college towns with decent music and nightlife scenes, and although I saw maybe one fundraiser event, I didn’t see anything on the level of what we’re doing here in Hawaii.
For the most part, all the bars and clubs involved just did their own promotions for Rebuild Japan, with the exception of NextDoor’s huge silent auction and donation boxes at Downbeat, Manifest, NextDoor and thirtyninehotel.
As far as the crowd’s attention went, it was stolen, naturally, by the crazy, Japan-inspired fashion show at Bar 35’s Friday Couture event. We’re talking 6-foot-tall geisha girls, fake swords, body and face paint, and all kinds of colorful stuff.
Here’s the gallery, done by me and Jermel-Lynn Quillopo:
I left early (well, early for me, which is around midnight) after getting a call from Nobunny, aka Justin Champlin, that indicated he was finally settled down and available to do a last-minute interview. The first interview I’ve done after midnight, but it didn’t seem to phase either of us.
Saturday, I left early for Waikiki Shell to hit up the Mayjah Rayjah. If you didn’t know about it or hadn’t heard of it before this weekend, obviously you’re not on Facebook. It’s not often that an event inspires the level of promotion and marketing that Ray Jr, Thaddeus Park and the rest of the crew have been pushing for months now.
There was a good turnout for the concert itself (official word was around 7,000 people in attendance), and I got there in time to catch Kolohe Kai, Ho’onu’a and the headliners, Katchafire. Ahhh, such beautiful voices on those guys. Beautiful New Zealand accents, too.
Soon as the Mayjah Rayjah was done, I headed back to Chinatown for Nobunny’s show at NextDoor, with local indie bands Narwhal and Red Rocket opening. Jet Setters, the fledgling promotion company that brought in The English Beat, is off to a good start with their second show:
It seems that who we are is often disconnected to the face we present to the world; how we dress and how we appear to others. Just ask Nobunny about that. Although he claims he’s really kind of shy, his alter ego moonlights as a crazy, lewd, outrageous bunny that would give poor Peter Rabbit nightmares for life. The stage persona carries over to his band, too. Guitarist Jason “Elvis Christ,” pretty flashy while he’s up there, told me that he absolutely can’t watch video of himself performing.
After the show, I got a chance to hang out with the guys, who, for the most part, seemed surprisingly chipper considering the crazy performance they’d just put on. In person, they’re cool, low-key and laid back, and seemed really stoked to be here in Honolulu.
Oh yeah, rumor has it that there *might* be a secret Nobunny show… unfortunately, it’s a secret bigger’n how the Easter Bunny manages to lay all those eggs. Do stay tuned, or follow @chant808 on Twitter for more details/coverage, though.
Looks like another great weekend coming up, starting off with some of the stars of Project Runway appearing at Waikiki EDITION Thursday evening for a fashion show/meet & greet, then Toro Y Moi live in concert at NextDoor on Saturday. Party hard, party safe!
