January 20th! Slack Key Guitar Fest with Hawaiian Vending!

I have been to this event many times and it's always wonderful. The music and dancing are stunning! AND the show is indoors, in a comfortable theater -- a plus, considering the cold weather we're experiencing lately. The tropical vending circles the theater outside, and is great. Plus they have Hawaiian food for sale. A truly fun day, that I recommend. You'll feel like you're in Hawaii for the day!

[ Edited by: Tangaroa-Ru 2013-01-12 10:17 ]

I was gonna post about this,
an amazing day of Real Hawaiian Music,
that Even Lucas Vigor wont go to.
wtf??

Jeff(btd)

This Sun.

only down side to this show.
no hammocks to lay in and veg out to the music.

Hope to see more than 2 other tiki peeps at this one.

Jeff(btd)

I wasn't going to respond to Jeff's ludicrous arguments about this event, except to say that while I am not the biggest fan of Slack Key, this event has some actual legends in it. Peter Moon? The man is absolutely fabulous, and while not my style of music, it is a music I have a tremendous respect for.

Now Jeff, I know where you are going with this. You are trying to out me as a hypocrite, because you know how much I love Hawaiian music, and will say that I am all talk because I won't go to this event.

1. I have a very stressful full time job, which is something you don't. You don't really understand what it means to be dog tired, apparently.
2. I already have an orchestra gig that day.
3. As much as I play music, I already take waaaaaaaay too much time from my family to go to additional tiki events, no matter how much fun they are. Have a family, then try and live your type of lifestyle. We don't live the same lifestyle, so quit trying to compare me to you and try to guilt me into going to see bands.
4. I am almost 50 Jeff. I have been to literally 100s of concerts of all types of music since 1979. Believe me, been there and DONE that!
5. You once alluded that the reason people don't support bands I am in is solely because I don't myself go to events...I am calling BS on that, because there are plenty of musicians from tiki central in bands far more popular then mine who also never go to these events unless they are working them. I won't bother saying who they are, but there are many. And their own performances are packed with tiki people.

Jeff, tiki central does not like Hawaiian music for several reasons:

1. Demographics. The average age of a tiki centralite is between 35 and 50. Meaning, the rock generation. These are people who grew up with rock and expect drums and excitement and volume in their music. Basically, everything Hawaiian music is not.
2. The main tiki gurus on this forum, the top dogs, do not support and give their blessing to hawaiian music or the bands that play them. That's why you will never see a Sven Kirsten at a smokin menehunes gig, but you will see him at a tiki joe gig. If people like him did give their blessings, the music might be more popular...based on how influencial people like he is.
3. Copyrights and CD sales. Many bands here do originals, release many CDs, have mug releases here and are friends with many of the artists who create their merchandise. Or they can totally afford to release this stuff themselves, or are themselves artists who can create their own posters (like Spike does). Barring that, releasing a CD of non-originals, the type the SMs play, for example, would be very, very expensive due to having to buy the rights to the music.

I hope this clears up two things, why I don't go to more tiki events, and why Hawaiian music is not popular on this forum.

These are things I have had to accept Jeff, much as I also dislike it. But there is something good that comes out of it anyway. You can be assured the smokin menehunes play the music we play because we LOVE and respect the music. That kind of passion is something you don't always find.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3n30zlFCtg

[ Edited by: bigtikidude 2013-01-18 22:04 ]

bump

Well I certainly love Hawaiian music and The Smokin' Menehunes. Every time I see them at Mojave Oasis, I'm the guy right up front soaking up the vibes. I thank you Lucas for perpetuating the music you guys play. I also love slack key, exotica and surf. If I lived in Socal I would be there at the Slack Key Festival for sure.

Although some tiki afficionados are not fans of traditional Hawaiian music, it holds a special place in my heart. I grew up on the islands in the 60's and 70's and those mele transport me to a different time and place. Hawaiian music, including hapa-haole music, is important to me personally because Hawaiian culture was dying 50 years ago. Even with the renewed interest in Hawaiian culture a big part of it is gone forever. This Hawaiian doesn't want to see our culture fade away like so many other ancient peoples. So, yes I had a Hawaiian band play at my 50th birthday party at my tiki bar last year and I'm proud of it!

BTW-I hope to see both you guys at Mojave Oasis again this year. -Wade

On 2013-01-19 07:58, Trailerpark Tiki wrote:
Well I certainly love Hawaiian music and The Smokin' Menehunes. Every time I see them at Mojave Oasis, I'm the guy right up front soaking up the vibes. I thank you Lucas for perpetuating the music you guys play. I also love slack key, exotica and surf. If I lived in Socal I would be there at the Slack Key Festival for sure.

Although some tiki afficionados are not fans of traditional Hawaiian music, it holds a special place in my heart. I grew up on the islands in the 60's and 70's and those mele transport me to a different time and place. Hawaiian music, including hapa-haole music, is important to me personally because Hawaiian culture was dying 50 years ago. Even with the renewed interest in Hawaiian culture a big part of it is gone forever. This Hawaiian doesn't want to see our culture fade away like so many other ancient peoples. So, yes I had a Hawaiian band play at my 50th birthday party at my tiki bar last year and I'm proud of it!

BTW-I hope to see both you guys at Mojave Oasis again this year. -Wade

Thanks for your kind words, trailer...means a lot to me!

Hawaiian music is an interesting style that will always have fans. Maybe because the music is universally good, and most of the musicians are great players. That video that BTD posted is a fine example of what slack key is all about. If you go to the islands today, though reggae is huge there are always musicians doing the slack key style. When I was last there, I saw a guy in a major hotel playing slack key style on a uke. He did this by using effect pedals to set up the drone (normally played by the lowest two strings on a guitar tuned slack, as the video shows)and then he was layering the top part with finger picking much like that guy in the video was. For a goof, I shouted out some hapa haole songs and saw his face light up...he obliged me with several, and he was really, really good at it.

But these hawaiian music fans are not tiki people, that's for sure! They tend to be older surfers and what people call "blue hairs"...anyone that used to catch us play at the catalina fish kitchen way back with Uncle Bill knows the crowd...and can tell these were the original inhabitants of tiki bars back in the day..

One of the most interesting gig we ever played was in a backyard, for a bunch of surfers...Bong can also tell you about it, but it was funny...here we were playing "sleepy hotel music", yet the surfers were standing around us in a semi circle, beers in hand, taking in every bit of it! It reminded me of playing in my high school rock band, when the people in the backyard would do the exact same thing...but this wasn't rock, but old time hawaiian music we were playing. That crowd really "got it", and it made is very happy to have an audience that really appreciated what we were doing.

Well folks, off to the ITMP now! see you there!

7th Annual Southern California Slack Key Festival at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center January 19, 2014