Night Lights Weekend Wrapup Feb. 4-6
First Friday is always a crazy weekend for me. When people ask me where I’m going to be, I still don’t have a specific answer for them. My closest estimate is “Chinatown,” and as a followup, “at least one new place I didn’t go last month.”
Has anyone stopped to notice and appreciate how many places there ARE in Chinatown these days? Used to be I could hit them all in one night… now I’m lucky if I can visit half the galleries, shops, art studio lofts, clubs and bars that Chinatown has to offer.
Another thing I’ve noticed is a growing number of street food carts and trucks that appear in Chinatown on First Friday. Everyone from the Doner Shack to the myriad hot dog stands that have cropped up looked like they were doing some brisk business, and it’s brilliant. Bring on the food trucks! Give me more variety! Not to mention the heavenly smells that really help to make First Friday more of a street festival.
Doner Shack was located on the corner of Bethel and Pauahi streets this month; they’ll be moving to a space inside SoHo soon.
No street festival would be complete without music, though, and that’s another thing that Chinatown is getting better at cultivating every First Friday. From the DJs at the end of Chaplain Lane, to the Hawaii Suzuki Strings playing in front of Hawaii Theatre,
Hawaii Suzuki Strings held a mini-concert outside Hawaii Theatre to raise money and awareness of the group before heading to Rome.
to the kids from Family Dinner promoting their shows on the street corner,
Talk about creative marketing methods… I love these guys!
to the Hare Krishnas, to the lion dancers who were out and about this month, celebrating Chinese New Year, to the Brazilian capoeiristas to the lone guitarist on the corner… well, you get the point. It’s a wonderful mishmash of all kinds of different cultures and social scenes that, in the last few months, has returned the concept of First Friday from just a huge club night to its original idea of a lively Arts District that offers something for absolutely everyone.
Here’s the rest of the gallery:
Here’s a picture of Hotel Street after 9 p.m., when the clubs were really jumping:
Saturday was an interesting night too, but in a different way. I stopped by Mercury Bar to support some bands that I haven’t seen in forever, including 86 List and Go Jimmy Go, and found the small space packed wall-to-wall, with almost as many people outside as there were inside. Among those who showed up to watch the bands were a sizable group of skinheads, most of whom were at least head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the bar, and allegedly members of a somewhat notorious gang. Scary? Sure, judging from the looks on people’s faces.
To my credit, I remembered an important lesson from high school: That not all skinheads are Nazis, and in fact most of them hold violently anti-Nazi sentiments. It was pretty obvious these guys weren’t Nazi skinheads; in fact they turned out to be pretty cool, even if they did politely decline to have their pictures taken (for obvious reasons).
The show itself was pretty good, with five bands crammed into one night, and no cover except by donation. Wait, FIVE bands for no official cover? That’s insane!
That’s about all for this weekend… there’s all kinds of stuff going on next week, including Matt and Kim at The Waterfront on Thursday, Devil Doll at NextDoor on Friday, the grand opening of Showbox Honolulu, and all kinds of Valentine’s Day and Anti-Valentine’s Day parties.
Just curious… which do you think has more merit? A traditional Valentine’s Day party, or an unconventional party opposed to the idea but obviously acknowledging it?
