Over Labor Day weekend, my friend, D., and I had the chance to see not one, but TWO Poly concerts. Of course, we had to pay twice, too, but we didn’t mind!
Friday night started out with Maoli, my favorite Jawaiian-type band out of Maui. Both D. and I dressed very casual that night. The opening act was PeniDean. I’m not a huge fan of theirs, so showed up when their set was nearly over. It was perfect timing, though, becacouse just as I walked up to the door, my friend was walking up from the opposite direction. The show was at Neck of the Woods, which I highly prefer to Mezzanine. Since it’s smaller, the setting is a little more intimate. I never get trampled or pushed out of the way, nor do I have to wait forever to get a drink at Neck of the Woods. I’d had a few Heinies at home to start me off, but went to the bar first thing regardless. The bartenders there are pretty nice, too. When Maoli started, D. and I were right in front of the stage. Maoli sounded great, as usual. Afterwards, we hung out a bit longer. Now that my friend is on this Hawaiian/Polynesian kick, she wants photos with all of the musicians, too, even if she’s not sure who they are! From my experience, Maoli doesn’t generally get photos with their fans. The fact that we got a photo with their lead singer, Glenn, last time was kind of a fluke. D. was patiently waiting for him to come out from behind the VIP rope this time, but it never happened. She did, however, motion for the keyboard player to come over, so we took pictures with him. Diggy, who’s the lead singer of the Mango Kingz, was running around as well. We’ve “stalked” him for so long that he knows we are now! We took our obligatory photo with him and chatted with him about his recent trip to Barcelona. Lastly, I had pointed out the promoter, Elijah, to my friend. He’s SOOO much nicer than Big Body Cisco. Of course, D. wanted to take pictures with him, too!
We were back at the same place on Saturday night to see Spawnbreezie. Several other musicians were performing as well, a few that I’d heard of and others that I hadn’t. When we were at the bar, she got all excited when she spied Samu. I asked her if she’d looked him up on the internet and listened to his music after I’d mentioned liking him; she admitted that she had! Thus, our first pictures of the evening were with Samu! I’d missed Makisi’s performance, but saw someone named Okim, who was interesting; enjoyable enough. I don’t even remember who else was on the bill. We both were on the edge of our seats waiting for Spawnbreezie. Once again, we were right at the front of the stage. Unlike at his performance there last year, there were no ratchet Micronesian women crawling on stage to terrorize the performers or molest them. That made me enjoy the performance so much more! We weren’t expecting to get pictures with Spawnbreezie, as I’d never seen him take photos with fans before. However, they announced a Meet and Greet with both David Rhythm and him. We waited and waited. I was about to give up, but she said that she’d wait all night! Luckily, we didn’t have to, as they appeared right about that moment. She was the first person in line to meet them and have pictures with them. She was enjoying herself just a little bit too much, though, as the people behind me kept yelling for her to “Hurry up!” Spawnbreezie asked me how my evening was going. “Great ’cause of you!” I replied. I would have had more of a conversation with him, but aside from the others in line being in a rush to meet him, I was slightly hammered. Next time I intend to have a meaningful conversation with him, though!
With Maoli’s keyboardist
My friend with Elijah
With Diggy of the Mango Kingz
With Samu
With Spawnbreezie and David Rhythm