Actually, I’m only going to update you on the last part of Sunday night. Yes, I did hang out with the guys from the office in J-Town and in bars all over town on Friday night. Yes, I did go to the “pre-construction” party at Muka on Saturday night. I even had a great date with that cute Aussie guy on Sunday night, but you’re not gonna’ hear it from me. I’ve got to keep SOME things under my hat!
Fast forward to about 8:00 p.m. on Sunday night. My dinner date with aforementioned cute Aussie guy was over. He offered to drop me off at Mezzanine, where the reggae concert was being held that I was attending. We were there fairly quickly, but virtually no one was outside yet. Right about then, my friend, F., sent me a text saying that she’d be a little late for the start of the concert. At that moment, I told said Aussie guy that he should let me buy him a drink at some un-scary bar in the neighborhood, if we could find one, since he’d given me a lift and since I still had about an hour to kill. “Siri” suggested The Chieftain, a very casual bar that we’d both been to before. We went in, drank a beer, had some funny conversation, then went back to Mezzanine. By that time, there was a looooonnnnnnngggggg line. He asked if I wanted to be dropped at the front of the line & wanted to attempt to cut. I told him that the back of the line was fine for me. You see, the concert I was attending was of Jah Yzer (some probably Bay area musician that I’d never heard of & didn’t care about), Maoli (a band from Maui that plays “Jawaiian” music) and Katchafire (a reggae band from New Zealand, that I also didn’t care about). The concert was being attended by hordes of Polynesian/Pacific Islander people (i.e. people either descended from or directly from Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, the Marquesas, Tahiti, etc.). If there’s one thing you do NOT do, it’s cut in line in front of a 250 lb. Samoan guy!!! That’s straight up street smarts! In truth, what I love about Poly events is that everyone is truly NICE! There’s no cutting, no pushing, no shoving. Everyone is about respect to others and with themselves. So I went to the back of the line and probably made it through the front door in about 20 minutes. I told the ticket guy that I was waiting for a friend; he didn’t mind me hanging with him until she showed up at all. When she came to the street area across from the door, I asked someone to kindly pass her the ticket, which they did. She went to the back of the line and it probably took her about 20 minutes to get in as well. No biggie. In the meantime, I wandered over to the promo items and bought myself a nifty Maoli T-shirt. Jah Yzer was playing that entire time and I paid no mind at all. When F. got in the door, she apologized for being late, bought me a beer and we started chatting. Once Maoli came onstage, we scrunched ourselves to the front of the crowd as much as we could. As I said before, there was really no pushing or shoving; people move out of your way when they see you’re trying to get by. F. admitted to me that she doesn’t really like reggae music, but simply wanted to hang out with me. However, when Maoli began playing, she told me that she actually liked their music; thought their lead singer had a beautiful voice. They played some of my favorites – “Write Me A Letter,” “Something About Your Love,” “Blew It,” etc. Jordan T. also did “Sunset Tonight.” As soon as they were finished, we left. That’s how much I don’t care about Katchafire! F. dropped me off at home and we sat out front talking about our past and upcoming travels for awhile. I’m off to Hawaii and she’s off to Puerto Rico in May. Once we’re both back, she’s going to fill me in on Vietnam.
So, yeah, it was a great night. The Aussie guy? What about him? I can’t really hear you…