soniczen

Tropics Bar and Cafe was a welcome first stop for the tour. This place reminds me of Frog and Peach: stage as you walk in, tables, messy walls, pieced together sound system. Definitely a reggae vibe here. Clean upstairs bar area and capacity is an intimate 150 persons. The people at this half bar, half internet cafe are your normal mix of bar folk at 5pm. Some getting in on with the cheap drinks, and others mooching the free wifi. We met up with John, drummer from Ooklah the Moc, after he got off work and he showed us how to get to Tropics. Pat, bar owner, was there to give us details on the night. Opening band, Guidance, was to start around 10, then we would finish the night. Nice bar tab and food situation confirmed so we grabbed a cab back to the hotel to rest up a bit and get ready.

Guidance, a nice little four piece with three of them singing, killed their set I thought. Per Hawaiian standard, the male vocal harmonies were on point but the bass player really stood out. The sound situation was classic. 20 channel Mackie on stage by the drummer, monitors on stands at head height and two mains, one with a sub cabinet. Nothing matches.

By the time we played there was about 50 people in the bar, and it stayed that way for most of the night. Not the spring break crowd by a long shot, but a few rastas and people that generally wanted to hear music and not scream at a DJ. Out set was nice and… loud? Man, the monitors right next to my head had me and Tony (trombone) switching positions every few songs just to save our ears. Our set was good for being as tired as we were, and when we were done we were all amped and wide awake, which was good because we had a 6am flight to Maui. Headed back to the hotel around 2:30am and checked out at 4am. No sleep.