Post #442156 by FrankNtiki on Tue, Mar 24, 2009 10:27 AM

Aloha and mahalo from Frank. Thank you so much to all of you who attended my little shindig at the Forbidden Island yesterday (SUN 3/22/09). I had a great time playing my guitar and uke and hanging out with all of you!

There's so many people to thank, so here it goes:

First and foremost props go out to Mike Pacheco who played bass in two of the bands and helped me haul all the gear. How many musicians do you know who would willingly get up at 9AM on a Sunday and drive 20 miles to a gig for no money? I only know one person like that. His name is Mike Pacheco.

There was an abundance of great drummers in attendance. In fact, the three most talented drummers I have ever known were there: Shig Sumiyama, Mike Burns, and Kevin Woodhouse. I won't rank them by number. Sometime soon they're going to have a fight to the death and the last guy standing will be declared the greatest drumme r ever. More details soon.

The tropical quintessence of the Tiki-inspired cocktails was perfectly complimented by the musical stylings of Apocalypso Now. Bandleader Michael McMorrow played steel drums and smokin' jazz guitar, while famed ranconteur John Poultney plucked guitar and warbled something resembling vocals on the microphone. Such are the things Island Dreams are made of.

Did I mention the raffle prizes? There were nearly a dozen prizes and I must thank the people who were so kind to donate: Kitten On The Keys, Iuka Grogg & Judd's Hill Winery, Crazy Al Evans, Miles Corbin from The Aqua Velvets, Steve Indig from New Wave City, and Melanie Tobin from Vima Dance Studio.

I personally donated what I thought was a great prize : Win A Date with Frank Novicki. The woman who won the prize felt compelled to come up to me later and discreetly tell me that she didn't actually feel like going on a date with me. Jeez! I can't even give it away!

The thrilling conclusion of the afternoon was a performance by CHIMP - the smaller but still dangerous version of APE. Crazy AL and Eric Rindal were unable to appear, but Mitch Tobias, Kevin, Lane and I powered forward like Nordic Vikings on our way to a pillaging. The absence of flying wood chips did not seem to detract in the slightest from our collective desire to prove that less, indeed, is actually more.

And thanks are due to a couple of uke players who strummed us happily into the waning moments of our little Sunday concert: Erich Sylvester, the Human Victrola and lover of music your grandma did naughty things to back in the day, and the Fez-bedecked croaking and crooning of the legendary Tiki King. Thank you both for the awesome uke tunes!

Special thanks go out to F.I. Owner Michael Thanos for all his hospitality, MC Will The Thrill for his grumpy-but-loveable commentary, Tiki Mary and Alex for production assistance and videography, my doorman Skip, my ravishing raffle ticket girl Ruby, and to all who attended and smiled and laughed as much as I did. Thank you all! Let's do it again soon!

Frank Novicki