By Nadine Kam
Nadine Kam photo
Brandon Boyd asks the audience, “Are You In?” Friday night at the Waikiki Shell. Click on the photo to see the video, which is a few seconds shy of the end of the song. Sorry. I ran out of memory at a most inopportune moment.
If you couldn’t be at the concert, below is an unedited clip of Incubus (and the audience) performing “Drive” March 21 at Waikiki Shell. My review is in Sunday’s paper:
Nadine Kam video
By Nadine Kam
Nadine Kam photo
Brian Aubert comfortable on local stage for a reason.
The Silversun Pickups—Brian Aubert, Nikki Monninger, Christopher Guanlao and Joe Lester—presented an intimate concert in the Road Runner Music Hall in the Castle & Cooke Building at Dole Cannery March 19. I was one of the lucky 100 or so who got to see the band up close and in advance of the band’s Friday concert with Incubus at Waikiki Shell. I was there because a friend won a Road Runner contest and could bring one other person. Yay! Otherwise, I would have seen them at the Shell, but it’s always so much nicer when you can listen to music in a pleasant setting without getting jostled in a crowd.
I was shooting video, and there was one moment in my video where it got shaky because photographer Tina Lau tried to nicely move me while taking her seat in a nice plushy sofa.
Sorry to all who visited this site from the promo on our Today cover, but I was asked to remove it. (Not by the band in case you’re wondering, so please continue to consider them a friend to fans.)
Before the show, Brian was interviewed by DJ Maleko, who admitted on stage to some nervousness in talking to Brian, who seemed as if he might have had a future in comedy if music had not been his calling. Looking forward to seeing what they do on a bigger stage tomorrow!
Nadine Kam photo
Check Nikki’s shoe. I liked her skull bass strap too, though you can’t see it in this photo.
By Nadine Kam
Nadine Kam photos
Allison Chu works on her hair prior to a rehearsal for “West Side Story” on Feb. 24. The musical’s public performances begin Feb. 29 with ’50s night at the KHS Auditorium.
Students from the Kaimuki Performing Arts Center bring back the look of the ’50s when “West Side Story” opens, and for a bunch of 21st century teens, it wasn’t easy to recreate the labor-intensive look that 1950s teens simply took for granted. It meant a whole lot of makeup, hair rollers, corsets for girls and tucked-in shirts and pants starting at the waist instead of the hips for boys.
Nadine Kam photos
Students warm up before a dress rehearsal, with instruction from Broadway actor and dancer Ramon del Barrio and musical director Nanilisa Pascua on piano.The boys were scolded for lapsing into 2008-style casual, but some enjoyed the ’50s formality, saying that it made them feel classy, even though they were playing street punks! (more…)
By Nadine Kam
American Idol
Jason Castro photographed looking much more polished than laidback as he did two nights ago during the men’s night of competition.
After a two-day marathon of watching the “American Idol” top 24, to me they could narrow the field to about 8 already. I hope Jason Castro stays a long time.
There’s been news stories run about the unfair advantage of some of the singers who have worked as pros, who have done tours and recordings, but I don’t think that will have any bearing on the final result. They didn’t make it “in the real world” the first time for the same reasons they won’t make it to the end on “AI,” whether it’s wrong material or sound or lack of charisma.
Top girls for me are Alexandrea Lushington and Syesha Mercado, but Jason’s a breath of fresh air, like Blake Lewis last season.
A lot of Jason’s fans are saying he looks like John Travolta. I don’t see it, unless they’re talking about his goofy wide smile.
By Nadine Kam
Listen to audio from the show on the green player below:
Just back from the My Chemical Romance concert. Fun. Not one of my favorite bands but a couple of friends wanted to go so off we went. Turned out to be a great, high energy show before they go on Christmas break and head out to Vietnam in 2008.
Started on the floor for the openers Saves the Day, pretty much a yawn. When they announced they had two more songs to go, some guy next to me yelled, “Hurry up!”
My Chemical Romance came on quickly after that because their drum kit was set up and ready to go. I drum so I have to say drums are the worst when it comes to setting up. I really went to watch the drummer so moved up to the loge as close to the stage as security would allow. Always like to see if I can keep up. Just watching him play “The Black Parade” was worth going to the concert. He was awesome (the drummer from Thursday), but wasn’t the band’s drummer Bob, who, according to their Web site, developed a golf-ball size lump in his wrist and made it worse by continuing to play. He wised up after being unable to hold onto his sticks during a Bon Jovi concert and is now getting treatment.
Naturally, for a band with a hit song titled “The Black Parade,” there was black all around. Considered going against the crowd and wearing white or red, but decided to go with the flow and wore a black Theory jacket (needed pockets to get the illicit camera in) over silver sequin striped gray tank top from Wet Seat, and multi-tiered lace and knit skirt from Miss Sixty. Accessorized with black and silver Chanel bracelet, Me & Ro silver bracelet, and two vintage black glass necklaces.
Mikey’s two looks.
I really loved what bass player Michael, or Mikey, Way was wearing on stage, a fitted double-breasted tunic with a military braided trouser. Wish I had a photo but no photos was the band’s request. The funny thing was when he was sitting in front of me I didn’t notice what he was wearing. Was just studying his face and hair. Guitarist Ray Toro also has great stage hair that moves, like Corbin Bleu.Here’s what some fans wore:
Saw about a dozen of these jackets from Hot Topic. (more…)
By Nadine Kam
Nadine Kam photo
Michael Aston fronts Gene Loves Jezebel, delivering a laidback
opening performance during the “Lost ’80s Live” concert Sept. 22.
Debated for the longest time whether or not to go to the Lost ’80s Live concert Saturday night at Aloha Tower Marketplace, which, by the way, is a great venue for acts unlikely to start a riot. I wanted to see Gene Loves Jezebel, a band I missed when they came here about 20 years ago? Scary how time flies. Given a choice, I prefer to see bands in their prime and my one regret is not having gone to see Rage Against the Machine in their last concert here. I didn’t want to get stomped and now I’m kicking myself for not going!
Nadine Kam photosThe idea of sitting through the other bands, Dramarama, When in Rome and Flock of Seagulls was daunting because ’80s music actually drove me away from chart/radio-friendly music. The ’80s, it seems to me, was about fantasy and over-the-top excess (in a bad way vs. today’s luxurious way), from clothes, to dry overblown permed hair, to the sound of fake instruments, especially synth drums. It drove me to playing music myself and the guitar god rock of Yngwie Malmsteen, Greg Howe, Vinnie Moore, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, eventually to bands like Metallica, Megadeth (whose guitarist at the time was from Hawaii and sent his drummer to my teacher Chuck James) and Anthrax, which put me in line to fall in love with the Seattle explosion of the late ’80s through early ’90s. Sigh. Those were the best of times.
At the concert, one of the ’80s fans told me how much he loved the music because “it was the last time music was happy.”
Nadine Kam photo
When in Rome singer John Ceravolo gets s
upport from the crowd after climbing up
against the barrier between the stage
and the audience.
Nadine Kam video
Dramarama performance of “Anything, Anything” in which I am up to my neck in sweaty armpits in the end.
Fair enough. The music was happy. The crowd was definitely happy. And I ended up staying for the whole show. The greatest thing about going to a concert surrounded by a bunch of old people is that they have other outlets for their energy so up close to the stage I didn’t have to worry about getting an elbow or combat boot in the face. Well, that is until Dramarama performed “Anything, Anything,” a song I’ve covered. At its finale, the singer John Easdale came over the barrier and the crowd surged forward to grab him — why they want to touch a sweaty stranger I’ll never know — but I got all these sweaty arms across the face without being mentally ready for it. Yuck! With any luck, I’ll be able to post my video for you.
By Nadine Kam
Wanted: Jimi Hendrix silk-screened shirt.
Well, Fashion Week has ended, though events will continue through the week. But I promised the bf that once the shows end, the trip will be all about him. First order of biz was heading to SoHo and Nolita to find another of the Jimi Hendrix T-shirts he had bought there last spring. Unfortunately, there were none to be had. We kept seeing Che Guevara and Bob Marley shirts and the vendors kept trying to tell him they were just as nice, good, etc. Never mind that they’re different people who stand for different things. Traipsing around all day in a fruitless search is no fun, though, so by the end of the day I was coming around to their way of thinking. “You better switch to Bob Marley,” I told him. He wasn’t amused.
Alice Cooper is the current face for John Varvatos.
Along the way we also checked out the John Varvatos store. Beautiful men’s coats, jackets and rock ‘n’ roll influenced casual wear. Unfortunately, with winter styles starting to fill the stores, there’s not much suitable for Hawaii wear.
Anyway, if you happen to know where we can get this red Hendrix shirt, lemme know!
By Nadine Kam
Enjoyed last night’s Damien Rice concert. I was thinking it would be an intimate little concert for 500 or so in Madison Square Garden’s side venue, WaMu Theatre. I’d never been there. Of course NY small means 5,500 people! I had to see him here because maybe 100 people in Hawaii know who he is and would go to see him, hardly enough to bring him all the way from Ireland.
It’s kind of a bummer to go from imagining 500 people and an intimate setting and see 10 times that many, but it was actually intimate enough for all to hear one man shout, “I love you!” to Damien. And intimate enough for the crowd to shush people making too much noise while Damien sang, his vocals too beautiful to be interupted by a few rubes. It worked. Considering the size of the venue, the sound was excellent, everything you’d want out of an acoustic set.
He had a full band and spoke in thoughtful, if fitful spurts, causing one woman behind me to urge, “Spit it out!” as he stammered his way through his thoughts about unrequited crushes, integrity of past eras, and father-son relationships. Toward the end of his set, he even did a little improv song-writing, asking the audience for chords, a mood, a color and a name. Well, the resulting song wasn’t very happy. It was a Damien Rice tune. He was apologetic, saying he intended it to be the happy song the audience wanted. Well, what can you expect when you get a B chord plus an already melancholy A minor; they don’t exactly go together.
I don’t go to many concerts these days because I find most music to be redundant or idiotic. I go to concerts to see something new or original, or determine whether a phenomenon is packaged or the real deal. Damien Rice is the real deal.
The Daily News had this to say about him:
“Some singers seem to bring their voices from a place deeper than the throat and the lungs. They seem to be singing from the unconscious, a place primordial and pure.
Damien Rice has that mystic quality. … Only a handful of singers can get to such a place. Interestingly, other than Ray LaMontagne, all of them hail from the U.K. or Ireland, including Van Morrison, David Gray and Nick Drake.”
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