Henry Kapono has made music everywhere from small bars to huge stadiums in his 30-year career. Given the chance to open a club that would be his namesake, his first concern was for the musicians who would play there.
Kapono opens his new
By John Berger
home to music lovers
Star-Bulletin"I wanted it to be a place I'd want to play," he says of the new live-music restaurant and nightclub/concert venue opening this weekend at Aloha Tower Marketplace. Kapono's occupies the site of the former Pier Bar plus the makai end of the ill-fated Studio 1 nightclub. The concert stage has been upgraded along with the lighting and sound system. The new restaurant is at the mauka end of Kapono's in what was part of Studio 1.
The decor includes PixelWorld Networks live video streaming, a decorative mural that includes an almost impossible to find Henry Kapono portrait, and a "Fender Bar" running along the mauka wall that replicates at massive scale the fret board of his favorite Fender/Guild guitar. The club is also set up to provide live Internet coverage worldwide via PixelWorld of concerts and other events.
"I pretty much had this vision 20 years ago because I played in some of the greatest places in the world. Places that you want to play whether you get paid or not because you sounded good, you looked good (and) people enjoyed themselves. I wanted to build a place like that where a local artist can be empowered by that kind of vibe.
"Hopefully we can take it beyond "the reef" and present events on the Internet any night we want. It's a fantastic situation and now we just have to nurture it and find the right way to get it out there. It's exciting."Honolulu got a preview of Kapono's last weekend as part of the Duane Oyama/Mass Appeal "Hoku Block Party," a three-clubs-for-one event that encompassed Gordon Biersch and Don Ho's as well. The evening began with O'Brien Eselu and Anelaikalani singing at Gordon Biersch and ended well past midnight with Fiji rocking a capacity crowd filling 18,000 square feet.
"It's wonderful to be here. It's an honor," Fiji said before taking the stage with the new Mana'o Company as his musicians. "Kapono was one of the greatest musicians to ever come out of Hawaii and playing his club tonight is great."
The crowd included many local entertainers as well as curious club-hoppers. Melveen Leed stopped by. Jason Lent of DisGuyz applauded Kapono's as "a place local people can watch and support local artists." Tony Solis, record promo guy and music manager for Booklines Hawaii, predicts Kapono's "will become the place to premiere new artists, bring back old artists and reunite old groups. It's gonna be big happening place."
Record producer Roni "Hobo Kid" Yurong said, "Open air is where's it's at in Hawaii. The moon, the clouds and the stars are beautiful. I like the feeling."Jamin "Chief Ragga" Wong kick-started the party early by sitting in for a high-energy workout with Ho'onua. Wong got the women on the dance floor fully into the performance when he stripped off his shirt. He also contributed to Ho'onua's crowd-pleasing set by taking over the drums for a while.
"This is a great place to chill," Wong said. "This place is unreal. The sound system is way better than what the Pier Bar had. The atmosphere is unreal. The (new) speakers and the lights are great. Congratulations to Uncle Henry Kapono!"
Kapono and his band tested the stage around the middle of the evening. "Home in the Islands," which he'd presented as an acoustic duet with Matt Catingub at the Hoku Awards last Tuesday, was a highlight of the evening, played guitar rock style.
The event was sweet for Kapono and his partners. It had taken them several years to find the right place. At one point there had been high hopes of building a nightclub around the dilapidated but picturesque sewage pumping station in lower Kakaako.
Those plans eventually fell through.
"I think if it was supposed to work it would have happened. We looked at Canis' and Nike Town and those places but we've been really cautious about the output of money we've been putting out and how much we're gonna continue to put out. One day we looked at the Pier Bar and said "What about here?" The location is stand-alone right at the base of Aloha Tower. The ships go by and the water is here."
Kapono says he and his partners weren't sure about expanding what had been the open-air Pier Bar area into what had previously been Studio 1 but they were offered a "good deal" and decided to go for it.
"It's a big location but I think our focus is big enough to keep us alive. We want it to be a location that presents quality music. We put a lot into the art of building this place.
"We wanted to build a place that people can come and have a good experience. Our target crowd is 25 and older 'cause they tend to demand a little bit more and I think we're capable of giving them a little bit more than they expect."
Management is something new for the veteran entertainer and multi-Hoku Award-winner. Kapono says he's not going to get involved in micro-management and he's not going to handle bookings.
"It's not the place I want to be. I want to keep myself as an artist and I want to keep my relationship with the (other) artists on an artistic level. I want to be known to them as a musician and artist as well.
"You're just as good as your last performance and if you don't come up with your best performance you jeopardize your career because you may not have another chance.
"I learned that from our C&K days, when we were signed by Columbia. Our manager, Bill Thompson, got a guy from Columbia in to see us. There was nobody in the place and he was on his way to dinner, but he ended up staying the whole night. Those kind of moments come very rarely but you need to be prepared all the time."
"I hope that happens for someone here."
Where: Aloha Tower Marketplace Kapono's
Hours: Hawaii Digital Jam 5 to midnight today; open 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. tomorrow; and 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. beginning Sunday
Food: Pupu menu available; full menu with gourmet plate lunches by chef Russell Siu available 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. beginning Monday.
Cover: Amount varies depending on who is playing, but cover charge always begins at 10 p.m.
Call: 536-2161 or 537-9611
Click for online
calendars and events.
