Lawrence Kansas - 11/01/08

To celebrate the 500th broadcast of The Retro Cocktail Hour, Kansas Public Radio presents Waitiki, the Boston-based tiki-tainment band, in concert at Lawrence's Liberty Hall - Saturday, November 1 at 8:00pm.

Tickets on sale now at Ticketmaster and the Liberty Hall box office. To order by phone, call 816 931 3330.

I'm not associated with this event, but I didn't see listed yet.

Link below:

http://kpr.ku.edu/retro/concert1108.html

[ Edited by: Tiki Baron 2008-07-25 07:28 ]

Here's a bump for this since it is getting close. I will be there. Come on Flyover state Tikiphiles!

Thanks for posting this! Yes, we will be coming to Lawrence, Kansas, for one jam-packed night of WAITIKI fun.

What a great lineup we have in store... Featuring LOPAKA COLON, son of Augie Colon (original percussionist & birdcaller of the Martin Denny band) on percussion and bird calls!

"The Mayor of Exotica" - Tim Mayer - saxophones, flutes
"Vibranaut" - Jim Benoit - vibraphone
"Ms. Helenini" - Helen Liu - violin
Zaccai Curtis - piano
"Space Kadet" - Abe Lagrimas Jr - drums/perc
Lopaka Colon - bird calls, percussion
"Prof. Humming Flowah" - Randy Wong - bass, bandleader

A whole host of new tunes, arrangements, Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, & Les Baxter re-creations. We are so excited about this show, and hope that you are too. Look forward to making new friends in Kansas and seeing old friends alike. I believe the Liberty Hall bartenders will be serving drinks off the 2008 WAITIKI Drink Menu.

Aloha & a hui hou,
Randy & WAITIKI

On 2008-09-21 20:11, professahhummingflowah wrote:
Look forward to making new friends in Kansas and seeing old friends alike. I believe the Liberty Hall bartenders will be serving drinks off the 2008 WAITIKI Drink Menu.

Aloha & a hui hou,
Randy & WAITIKI

I am looking forward to see you guys and gal in concert. As far as the drink menu...Looks like I will be catching a cab home!
This is gonna be The Tiki event around here... probably ever. Yeah!!

Tony

Wow....I was just there. We did a 1200 mile motorcycle trip thru Kansas. Hit the State fair in Hutchinson. (Alice Cooper at the Kansas state fair is a wonder to behold) Drove thru the remnants of Hurricane Ike and all the flooding ya all had. Went to Meade and had the best steak I've ever had in my life. Good times in Kansas.....good times and nice people.

Do you need me to bring any of my Moais to your fair state? I carve them on a regular basis. Maybe I could show?

It would be grand......Mr. Dale

Ooops....jumped the gun.....I'll send to off to the link and see if can bring some carvings.....and a few drinking denverites.

Aloha,

Darrell Brogdon has done an excellent job with the Retro Cocktail Hour.

I am considering going as I have been listening to the Retro Cocktail Hour nearly since Darrell started it.

Is there a hotel where the TC Ohana will be staying?

Are there any activities going on the Friday before or the Sunday after the Concert?

Is anyone else traveling to this event?

There are two hotels within walking (staggering) distance from Liberty Hall. The historic Eldridge and a Marriott which are both nice.
As far as pre and post event stuff I haven't heard of any. That doesn't mean there can't be though!

Hey Tikibob,

I won't be able to make the Retro Cocktail Hour but 2 days later is the Les Baxter & Robert Drasnin Concert in Tucson. I think the Waitiki boys might stop for this as well.

Stop by after Kansas if you can.

More info here.....

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=29868&forum=11&4

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

The flyer says "come early and party all night."

Does this mean there will be an after party after the concert?

Does anybody know where it will be?

Also, will there be any TC (or other) activities during the day before the concert?

We haven't planned any official TC events, but anybody coming in for this show should definitely get in touch with me so that we can all meet up. This is going to be one awesome show!! Don't PM me... please email info[at]waitiki[dot]com and we'll go from there!!!!!!!! Thanks to all TC'ers who are coming!

BTW, Darrell informed me that the reserved table seating on the main floor is now SOLD OUT!

I think we're either staying in the Holiday Inn or Spring Hill Suites. You should book your hotel ASAP because there's a huge Kansas U. vs. Kansas State rivalry football game that weekend. Anyone who wants to meet up should call the WAITIKI Hotline: 617.771.7971 or email [email protected].

Here's more info on the show/what we're playing...

WAITIKI + Retro Cocktail Hour!
Saturday, Nov. 1 at 8 PM
Liberty Hall - 642 Massachusetts St., Lawrence, KS
Balcony Tickets at Ticketmaster.com (Reserved Table Seating now SOLD OUT!)

THE SHOW
WAITIKI, the Boston-based modern exotica band, will be performing live in Lawrence, KS for a special show hosted by Kansas Public Radio's Retro Cocktail Hour, in celebration of the program's 500th broadcast!

It'll be an exotic, once-in-a-lifetime South Pacific sound adventure like no other, featuring classic music by Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, Les Baxter, and others, plus original tunes by the band. Besides the unforgettable music, there'll be a full service tiki bar (serving drink recipes by Jeff "Beachbum" Berry and Kern Mattei from the Official WAITIKI Drink Menu) and a dance floor, so come early and party all night!

The Lawrence, KS performance marks the American debut of the new WAITIKI Septet, the same band that made its European debut at the Wassermusik Festival in Berlin, Germany, this past July. Modeled after the classic live exotica groups of Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, Augie Colon, and others, the WAITIKI Septet plays original arrangements of tiki tunes that made the genre famous—and is the only group of today to perform in the true exotica tradition.

Unique to the Septet (and unlike many other exotica bands), hip dance grooves and improvisation play significant parts in the group's collaborative musicianship, and its all-star lineup of musicians make its show an unbelievable presentation of talent, artistry, and sonic delights.

ABOUT THE BAND
WAITIKI has twice won the "Exotica Album of the Year" Award presented by the Music Foundation of Hawaii and has been featured at numerous festivals, including Tiki Oasis (San Diego, CA), Hukilau (Fort Lauderdale, FL), North East Tiki Tour (Boston, MA), the Hawaii International Jazz Festival (Honolulu, HI) , Wassermusik (Berlin, Germany), and the Festival de Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico).

The Septet's members are: Tim Mayer (flutes, saxes), Helen Liu (violin), Zaccai Curtis (piano), Jim Benoit (vibraphone), Lopaka Colon (percussion & bird calls), Abe Lagrimas (drum kit), Randy Wong (bass & bandleader).

IN THE PRESS
"Waitiki is one of the most original and talented bands working in Exotica music today . . . they create an Exotica hybrid that is well-crafted and wickedly infectious." —Jeff Chenault (Tiki Magazine, Summer 2008)

VISIT US ONLINE
Our website: http://www.WAITIKI.com
On myspace: http://www.myspace.com/waitiki
On facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/WAITIKI-Classic-Exotica-for-Modern-Listeners/16361941686

Aloha ya all.....I'm gonna be coming down from the rockies at a high rate of speed and I'll be bringin' a few freshly carved Moais that will just add a nice aroma of turpentine and Linseed oil to the event. Just what every tiki party needs. If the drinks don't make you tipsy the fumes might!

Hopefully I'll have three tikis there.......One is spoken for but the other two will be looking for a loving caring home. They are soo cute and cuddly. Hard to resist with their great big thoughtful eyes. You'll see.

I think we got the last room in town at the Rodeway Inn. Thats all I could find. Must be a happening place.

Luv you and your wasted livers. Mr. Dale

Boy, this looks like fun!!!

I sure wish I could make it out for this guys.

Record this baby will ya!!!!! :wink:

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

So far I've received emails from Tikiton, Dave & Beth, Jeff, and a few others who I don't think post on TC about doing a meet-up next weekend. Sounds good to me. Watch this thread for updates. Also, Darrell from KPR sent me a pic of one of the Moai that Mr. Dale is bringing. It's totally awesome! How big is that thing, Dale? From the picture it looks about 5-6 feet tall!

Oh yeah......they are 5+ ft. tall. Kinda small but man are they cool. I'm bringing three but one is moving on to Tulsa before the show. Some kind of secret parking lot tiki deal.

So I'll have two for you guys to use on your stage.

We're not arriving until Sat. afternoon but are T.C.'s meeting up? Maybe a pre-show steak somewhere? Any tiki style places nearby? I'm bringing my 300lbs of fun drinking buddy Jay. Good guy.

See you there.

Mr. Dale

Perhaps brunch on Sunday, like 10:30? Two-thirds of us WAITIKI'ers will still be in town (the first third of us will leave early Sunday morning). Those remaining will be: me, The Mayor (Tim), Vibranaut (Jim), Space Kadet (Abe), and my uncle & cousin.

I can vouch for the tikis Dale carves- they are absolutely awesome! Will look great on stage.

I am so looking forward to this!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me and my brother and a couple friends will be going to the show.

It's crazy to think, but I've been listening to the Retro Cocktail Hour since like 1996! No s**t!

I don't think that there has ever really been a tiki "event" in Lawrence. I saw Combustible Edison play at the Granada in Lawrence in 1996 or 1997. They opened the show with "Quiet Village".

There is a pseudo tiki bar close to the venue, The Sandbar. The decor is nice, but they don't really have any 'real' tiki drinks. And they have 'the best of Don Ho' CD on the jukebox. That's about it! Heck, I would give them a Martin Denny CD if I thought that they would actually put it in the jukebox!

There have been a ton of really great shows at Liberty Hall over the years. I've seen Sonic Youth, Medeski Scofield Martin and Wood, Morphine, and Prototype 909 play there to name just a few highlights. It's a really great venue!!!

I guess that I should bring my own tiki mugs for my peeps, right? I'll be drinking out of a skull, I guess, because it will be Dias De Los Muertos.

And is it gonna be OK if I record the show? I promise not to post it on you tube or anything. I just see it as my duty as an amateur historian. I have a few audio recordings of people that are not around anymore: Maynard Ferguson at Washburn University, and a couple of Frank Mantooth, for example.

Anyway, I'm counting down the days! Long live the Retro Cocktail Hour!
And, Darrell Brogdon for president!!!

SO SAY WE ALL!!!

ALOHA!!!
-Jack

Brother Jack! Nice to meet you.......I used to work on a small wheat farm Norwest of Salina....and my buddy thats coming along is from Meade. Its good to meet Kansas Cats into the whole tiki scene. Its hard to find in Colorado, Kansas, Neb, So. Dakota and such. There are a few tiki nuts in Denver and they do thier rockin' best to keep it going. So we could keep each other informed with any tiki stuff ANYWHERE near I-70. Yawanna?

This group from Boston sounds like a hoot. See ya there.

Mr. Dale. I'll be in my loudest shirt! Yellow with pink parrots!

Hey Mr. Dale!!

We'll look forward to seeing you at the show. It's gonna be killer. Me? Um, I guess that you can recognize me because I walk with a cane. (forklift accident about 6 months ago.)

And yeah, I can keep my ear to the ground and let you know if I hear of any other tiki events around here or on the I-70 corridor.

You know, if this show wasn't happening, I would try to be in Denver Nov 1. The Colorado Symphony is doing a Star Trek-themed concert Saturday. They are even gonna have Bob Picardo and John DeLancie there to announce. I wish that I could be in both places at one. (crap. I just realized that I will after I get a personal time machine in 50 years, then I can go back and see it! But only after I have seen like 50 Martin Denny and Esquivel shows first!) And in Kansas City at the same time as the Waitiki show there is gonna be a concert of (this is what my bro told me) "video game" music, and he said that it is gonna be a bunch of percussion...

You know, I think that I may have done a disservice to the Sandbar, so I would like to really encourage anyone coming into town for the show to take a look. It would be good to check out before the concert. We may not be able to get in after, because it is by that time full of drunk college kids, and then they only do a one-in-one-out thing. But the Sandbar has a 20 foot tiki mask with glowing eyes on the front of the building! Inside there is a lot of great decor, and like 3 fishtanks. I said that they don't have any "real" tiki drinks. By that I meant, nothing with fresh lime or lemon juice. They do have some pre-mixed grog/concoctions that percolate in those old fashioned punch things like they used to have in convenience stores. I foolishly asked them for a zombie once and they had to look up a recipe, had no Demerara Rum, etc. It was kinda sad. But it REALLY is worth a look for anybody coming into town. And I was serious, I would buy them a copy of TAMBOO or a Scamp-issued Martin Denny CD and I would GIVE it to them if they would put it in their fricking jukebox!

Also, right next door to Liberty Hall is Freestate Brewery. It was the first legal brewery in Kansas in over a hundred years. All of their beers are EXCELLENT. They will have them on tap at Liberty. (but they had a fire a few weeks ago so I don't know if they are still open.) There is a ton of great food to eat in Lawrence, and many places down town on Mass Street.

If people do want to meet up the next day, The Sandbar is the only tiki-themed place around, and from there people could proceed to somewhere with food...

And again, thanks to Darrell Brogdon for doing a great show for all these years, and for having a deeper record collection than me. The Retro Cocktail hour is a great resource. I have quite a few episodes recorded, as many contain rare and hard-to-find records. People can listen to it anytime online, or you can hear the new episode Saturdays live from 7 to 9 PM Central Time by going to the KANU website.

Thanks Darrell for throwing this show!

ALOHA!
-Jack

Sounds like the Sandbar for me! After show set up and tiki deals I think we'll try and find this place. A little pre Waitiki beverage in a Kansas Tiki place sounds good to us!

Hose me down! I'm getting hot! wheeeee!

Greetings from St. Louis.

This is my first post here on the forums. I wanted to introduce myself and make some connections before heading out to Lawrence this weekend for this event. New Waitiki fan, longtime RCH fan.

Looking forward to meeting folks from the forum. Will be attending solo. I'll be the guy with the Enchanted Tiki Room shirt...

Everyone travel safe!

Dave F
St. Louis

Rock Chalk Tiki! Yes, it's high time. I expect to see photos from this shindig! I remember playing at the Opera House way back in....oh never mind....that would make me old....

Y'all have fun.

And the party? In Larryville, it's where you make it.

Any way that we can identify all the TCrs showing up? Meet at the Hall bar at 7:30? Off to one side? Name tags or what? It would be cool to meet everybody as we'll be strangers from all over.

Before the show I'll be the cat in the F-250 hauling tikis. After that I'll be a happy bald man in a hawaiian shirt. Most likely a drink in one hand and business cards in the other.

Lets finger this out.

Mr. Dale

We're trying to figure out a mini room crawl of sorts for TC'ers on Friday night or after the show Saturday, but we won't know what's going on until we're on the ground in Lawrence tomorrow.

The best thing to do is to call the Waitiki hotline (617.771.7971) sometime Friday afternoon for the Tiki Halloween Joke of the Year. Lookin' forward to meeting you all!

By the way, I wanted to mention that we'll be selling the now-famous fruit butters at the show, which come direct from the Big Island of Hawaii, and are absolutely fantastic in cocktails, on corn, as sautes, etc. The butters come in 6 flavors: Tahitian Lime, Lilikoi (passion fruit), Mango, Guava, Coconut, and Pineapple. The Liberty Hall bar will be serving up two butter drinks concocted for us by Jeff "Beachbum" Berry, which you can read about at Jeff's website: http://blog.beachbumberry.com/2008/04/26/its-better-with-butter. Butter supplies are limited, and it's the only place you can get them outside of Hawaii, not to mention that they make great stocking stuffers. Each butter comes in an 8 oz. no-refrigeration-needed jar. We price them at our shows at a big discount to fans: $9. (If you were to buy online from Hawaii, the cost of the jar plus shipping would come to $16 for one jar!!).

Descriptions of the other drinks to be served from the WAITIKI Drink Menu can be read here: http://waitiki.com/drink-menu/

Finally we'll have the new "Tales of WAITIKI" comic books for sale, hot off the presses.

[ Edited by: professahhummingflowah 2008-10-29 22:05 ]

Thank to 8ft tiki telling me about this, I tentatively plan to be there and bring two others. We're doing Halloween in Hutchinson (using old OoH masks in a porch display), so won't be in Lawrence til Saturday.

We have made it to Lawrence, safe and sound (albeit a nasty orgeat emergency, more on that later) and just returned from the Sand Bar and Free State Brewery. If you're from out of town, go to Free State and order the gumbo. It's totally awesome. 5 out of 7 of us ordered it and loved the shit out of it. Sand Bar was pretty quiet tonight but at least I got a free shark!

Have fun Professa!!!!! :)

Wish I could join you. :(

Tell Darryl Brogdon that Jeff said Hi!!!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

[ Edited by: Jeff Central 2008-10-31 10:15 ]

Many, many thanks to all of you who came to the show—especially those who introduced yourselves to us. It was an honor and a privilege for us to perform for you on Saturday night!! Especially to Mr. Dale for the beautiful moai, those dudes were so awesome.

Some of you asked afterwards what we meant by "the American debut", since after all, WAITIKI has been around since 2003. What we should have clarified was that the show was the American debut of the brand-new WAITIKI All-Star Exotica Septet—you know, with our new bandmates Lopaka Colon (son of Martin Denny's original percussionist, Augie Colon), Zaccai Curtis, and Jim Benoit (the vibraphone prodigy). Would love to hear what you thought of the show, please say it here!

Stay tuned... For those of you who weren't able to join us, we'll be posting a few video clips from the show.

Thank you, Lawrence KS for being an absolutely delightful audience, and HAPPY 500TH BROADCAST ANNIVERSARY TO DARRELL BROGDON & KPR'S "RETRO COCKTAIL HOUR"!!!!!!!!!!

WAITIKI: Exotic Tiki Entertainment From Polynesia & Beyond
Videos, MP3s, and More at http://www.waitiki.com

[ Edited by: professahhummingflowah 2008-11-02 23:52 ]

Here's a link to the video of our encore, a fiery dance version of Martin Denny's "Firecrackers", played by the WAITIKI All-Star Exotica Septet.

Here is my critical review of the performance.

Freakin' Awesome!!!!!!!!!
If this comes out on disc I am so there.

Everyone in this group is an extremely talented musician and they were ON!
Lopaka Colon was beyond belief, and this in no way takes away from anybody else.
I found something to enjoy from every individual performance.
I was in Music Geek form for sure. Double that for Exotica Music Geek.

They played three sets and were entertaining in everyone of them.
This is definitely one of my Top Ten concerts.

Loved it.

Tony

Ditto on what Tony (tikiton) said - plus, I will say that you couldn't meet a more gracious group of musicians. They were happy to chat w/ the fans afterwards, pose for photos, sign autographs (brought along the jacket for my Waitiki LP!), etc. Just bummed I couldn't hang out with them longer, but as Tony said, they played 3 sets! They were pretty tired, I'm sure! Can't wait to see them again. Hmmm... how do I get to Honolulu on the 27th???

Kansas City gang, we missed you!

It was like a time machine - Three hours and fifteen minutes of exotica with two short breaks during which the band socialized with the audience. They also sold their CDs lower than what they cost on Amazon - I bought two. I'll be looking for the broadcast of this concert on Kansas Public Radio.

I was finally able to take my lovely significant to an exotica show after years of listening to Martin Denny CDs on our road trips. As a bonus, we found out avril64 is the husband of a friend of hers from high school when he recognized us.

With permission, I recorded a few video clips. I'll have time to work with vids and stills later this month, but in the meantime, enjoy...

Bali Hai - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CELXqwIM9Qg

and Quiet Village - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kChh5bQRVao

Sorry about the quality; they were shot hand-held from the balcony, mostly at 12x.

Fantastic awe inspiring show fellas (and lady) You are truly THE Exoctica band to beat.
It was a great night from start to finish. Beautiful music with a nice hint of sarcasm.

AND it was a pleasure to meet all of you cats from Missouri, Kansas and especially Boston.

Next year? Same time same place? Oh please oh please!

More videos - Thank you to Professahhummingflowah for matching some songs to titles via You Tube comments. The second two are his compositions.

Theme song to the TV show "Adventures in Paradise": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrI3LO8QGJM

Part of "Sweet Pikake Serenade":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-X2LX4HcdQ

Part of "L'Ours Chinois": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKx_XUTcMgs

Lopaka Colon demonstrats jungle sounds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOC5xD44_OQ