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By John Berger
Special to the Star-Bulletin
HISTORY will be made tonight as Japanese supergroup Tube celebrates its 15th anniversary in concert at Aloha Stadium. It will be Tube's first concert in the United States and the first time any Asian recording act has headlined Hawaii's largest concert venue.
Tube fans in the first 20 rows can expect to get wet tonight. The show will be a special effects extravaganza that will use thousands of gallons of water erupting in fountains and "water pillars" as well as pyrotechnics, balls of fire, and a leading edge concert sound and light system.
The quartet -- Nobutero Maeda (lead vocals/guitar), Michiya Haruhata (lead guitar/keyboards), Hideyuki Kakuno (bass) and Ryoji Matsumoto (drums) -- will perform on a stage as wide and as high as those constructed for the Aloha Stadium performances of Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Janet Jackson and the Rolling Stones. Expect production values of comparable quality.
ON STAGE
What: Tube in concert
Gov. Ben Cayetano has proclaimed today "Tube Day" in Hawaii. More than 13,000 Tube fans have come from Japan for the show. (The governor's office estimates these fans will add almost $20 million to Hawaii's economy.)
Several thousand tickets also are believed to have been bought by local music fans, according to a spokesman for promoter Tom Moffatt.
Maeda, leader and spokesman for Tube, says he hopes more will decide to be there tonight. "This (show) is something you can enjoy even though you cannot understand the language. There is no language barrier in this show," he explained, partly through an interpreter, after a preliminary sound check Sunday at Aloha Stadium.
"I am really happy that we can celebrate (our 15th anniversary) here but we want to have fun as usual," is Haruhata's take on the event, while Kakuno sees the Aloha Stadium concert as "a starting point" for a new chapter in the group's history.
The show -- its official title is "Tube Live Around Special" -- follows the release in Japan of the band's 32nd single "Truth of Time," and its fourth greatest hits album, "TUBEst III."
Tube released its first American single, "Sha La La," in April.
The Tube extravaganza is the biggest of three recent shows by Japanese artists here. Guitarist Takeshi Terauchi played a low-profile engagement at the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel in April, and pop star Namie Amuro played the Waikiki Shell with Kalapana and Jake Shimabukuro in May.
Both Terauchi and Amuro were marketed almost entirely to Japanese nationals; almost all of the tickets for Amuro's concert had been sold in Japan before the remaining general admission tickets went on sale here.
Tube will be playing to more than twice as many people tonight as Amuro did at the Shell.
Mpeg Audio Clips
from Blue Reef:
Quicktime | MPEG-3 info
http://www.sonymusic.co.jp
So who is Tube? Shared interests in rock music and ocean sports brought them together in 1984. They made their debut as recording artists with "Bestseller Summer" in 1985 and have enjoyed success ever since with a series of hits such as "Season in the Sun" and "Summer Dream." Tube became known as the "summer band" and that image has been reinforced in recent years by their preference for wearing jeans and T-shirts, the use of tropical scenes as album art, and the fact that they record here.
Their current album, "Blue Reef," recorded at TK Studios in Hawaii Kai, epitomizes Tube's nostalgic international rock sound. So does the English lyric version of "Sha La La," which was recorded here in March and released locally on Moffatt's Paradise Records label a month later as a fund-raiser for the Easter Seals Hawaii eduction program. (The song was released in Japan as the "B" side of their Sony Music (Japan) "Truth of Time" single.)
Tube's next album was also recorded here and will be released July 20, Ocean Day in Japan. Maeda says there are no plans for American distribution.
Tube excels at combining elements of American and English rock with Japanese rock and pop and more traditional styles of Japanese music. The songs on "Blue Reef" reflect that cosmopolitan approach. Some are reminiscent of classic American and English hits but never become clones or copies of the oldies.
Maeda explains the group listens to as many different styles of music as possible, everything from pop and classical to contemporary Hawaiian and African folk music. Kalapana is one of his favorite local bands.
Schedule permitting, he hopes to visit Africa and learn more about the grassroots music there.
Maeda also hopes Tube can perform here each summer. He says an "unplugged" concert would be great if the logistics could be worked out.
As for tonight, Tube is here to rock!
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