Night Lights Weekend Wrapup, July 28-July 31
I know Love Fest was only last week, but that doesn’t mean all the good music shows were over, or even took a break.
Well, maybe a little bit of a break.
Das Racist, who played on Thursday at NextDoor, were about as cool or underwhelming as you expected them to be. Mad Decent, who I hear is Diplo’s roommate and was in town for Love Fest, spun a very short house music set complete with technical difficulties, and Justin of Ctrl+Alt+Del (despite varying rumors, no, that band is NOT coming back), along with Steven “Lock” Lynch, made a very brave live debut with their new electronica band, Shark Vs. Squid. But the real stars of the evening were local rap group Monarx, composed of Omega Cix, Quiet and Bumblebee. Although Sample couldn’t make it, the team of one guy and one girl rapper, plus a DJ, spit out some pretty sick rhymes and got a pretty positive response from the crowd.
Was everyone just unprepared for Das Racist? The guys got up there and seemed determined to have fun, but although the crowd up front seemed to be into it, I didn’t see as many people in the packed house singing along or rocking out as I expected.
Props to Brian (BRT promotions, not on Twitter, despite everything) for bringing out Das Racist, though, in what he plans will be the first of several Das Racist appearances on the island, every 13 months to be precise.
Friday was, if you hadn’t heard, the biggest Eat the Street to date.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t there for most of it, because I was at Waikiki Shell for the first day of the annual KCCN Birthday Bash, the huge Island Music festival. I got to catch Maoli, Ekolu and J Boogz playing to a pretty darn decent crowd (although Saturday, according to promoter Ray Jr., was the sold-out day).
Many thanks to Riana of Rudified Media, too, for hitting up Prie’s mixtape release party at NextDoor Friday night. Check out her photos and her trippy use of long-exposure:
Saturday, I headed out early for the VIP part of Apartment3’s second anniversary party, and ended up staying way later. I’m not sure what it is about that place; maybe it’s because I know so many of the staff members, or maybe it’s the relaxed, swanky-without-being-too-pretentious atmosphere, or possibly the masterful cocktails, but whenever I make a dedicated effort to go to Apartment3, I always end up staying much longer than I intend.
I always either run into or get tipped off to someone famous there. “Oh, the guys in booth three are from Hyper Crush. They killed it last night at SoHo,” someone said.
“Have you met Jack Law, the owner of Hula’s?” Maleko asked me, and although I had, it was good to see Mr. Law, who recently celebrated the 37th anniversary of Hula’s, and a whole ton of other industry folk there enjoying themselves. For the most part, everyone except a few people adhered to the black-on-black dress code, although Flash and Matty were feeling generous and let even the people who hadn’t come in to party.
Sunday, there were things going on, including the last day of Fungirl HI’s four-day lesbian party with cast members of reality TV show “The Real L Word,” which doubled as nightlife personality Melissa “Meme” Gregorio’s going-away party.
I couldn’t muster up the energy to leave the house, though. Call me a party pooper, but the only time I ever stepped outside was to grab some pho at Hale Vietnam, after which I proceeded to lapse into a coma. Yes, it’s that good.
What’s coming up next weekend? Jeff Tweedy of Wilco’s much-anticipated show at Hawaii Theatre on Thursday, Incubus at Kakaako Park on Friday, along with First Friday and the grand opening of The Artsmith collective where the old TAG Theatre used to be, among other things.
Who said stuff to do ever let up here? Not I.
See you around!
