This year is Kawaihae’s tenth anniversary. I first met Kawaihae through Jeff, the lead singer with an awesome voice. Jeff was working in Kumagaya Japan while I was down in Nagoya. But that’s not where I heard him sing.
A MASTER PERFORMER
and a masterful artist. Jeff adds his talents on the ukulele to his talented voice among other entertaining skills in his repretoire as he livens up any party. Jeff brought his ukulele and his voice to Australia where he entertained us with humor, magic, and music.
And this week’s performance did not disappoint. The five members of the band were in great form, energetic, and fired up the mid-week crowd.
During the set there were such happenings as seeing (or rather hearing) Jeff’s instrument lose its tuning. Without batting an eye and without breaking a sweat, and while continuing to sing, he put the strings into place, tuned up, and sang on. Ladies and gentlemen…it was a sight to see. Vance K. kept the crowd in fine spirits with his smooth bilingual emcee talents while breaking out the shaka strum on his uke. Scott kept the bass beat locked down with his cool unflappable style. An-san, pummeled out perfect rhythms for straight sets while Jimbo cheerfully kept everything tied together on lead guitar.
HULA?
But it wouldn’t be Hawaiian style without solid support from the crowd. And talk about support? Under Vance K.’s skillful encouragement, hula dancers were brought up on stage in an impromptu call. They showed they still had the moves. Even Jimbo put down the guitar to show off his moves.
HANA HOU!
At the end of the night, the crowd was on their feet and begging for more. And more we got. The whole place was packed and dancing , moving and shaking. From little kids to adults, Kawaihae brought Aloha to Akasaka.
THE MUSIC
Hear more of them, buy their DVDs.
Mahalo.
Dylan
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