RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
The Mendozas return with a new band, Aura III. They will be performing at Dave & Buster's tonight. Clockwise from left, Christine Mendoza, Dennis Mendoza, Del Mendoza, Gerard Mendoza-Orbello, Brian Mendoza and Beverly Orbello. Missing is Vincent Mendoza.
"I feel like we're auditioning all over again," Brian Mendoza said as he surveyed the late-night action at Dave & Buster's last week. Aura makes club return
By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comCount yourself a seasoned veteran of the local entertainment scene if you remember the days when Mendoza and his brothers and sisters were the nucleus of one of the strongest and most soulful Top 40 bands in Hawaii. Those were the days -- the '70s and early '80s -- when a full-time gig, playing the hits of the day six nights a week in a Waikiki nightclub, was as good as it got for most local musicians.
The Mendozas' family band -- known in the '70s as the Nomads and in the '80s and '90s as Aura -- was one of the best out of all the successful cover bands of those years because of their appreciation of funk and soul music. They had the talent, stage presence and soul power to represent Hawaii well when opening for national acts like the Commodores. They were also the full-time house band at the Point After during that club's zenith as one of Waikiki's most prestigious nightclubs.
Where: Dave & Buster's, Ward Entertainment Complex Aura III
When: 9 p.m. today
Admission: $10 until 10 p.m., $13 until closing (includes cover in effect from 10 p.m.)
Call: 589-2215
But that's just half the history that Mendoza and his family are putting on the line as they come out of retirement for a Fridays-only engagement at Dave & Buster's that starts tonight.
The lineup will include six members of the classic late-'70s group -- siblings Beverly, Brian, Christine, Dennis, Del and Vincent -- and one member of the next generation is Beverly's son, Gerard Mendoza Orbello.
"My son has a fabulous voice ... he's good-looking, intelligent and is going back (to school) for his master's, but he always had a beautiful voice. He started singing, and memorizing words and lyrics, when he was 2 years old," Beverly said. Family pride aside, Bev says that he also has the vocal range necessary to fill in parts that were sung in the old days by her brothers, Clifton and Michael, who are now working in Las Vegas.
The new band -- now dubbed Aura III -- is a bit smaller than the one that headlined the Point After in the days when the eight Mendoza siblings worked with as many as three additional musicians, but the repertoire will remain intact. Christine says the group will feature the dance hits they played at the Point and in some of their later engagements -- music from the Commodores, Earth Wind & Fire, Tower of Power and similar acts from the soulful end of the Top 40 chart.
"We find that most of the people we run into (from) back then ... miss this type of music, and we notice that it's really going over well, so why not get together and do it again?" Christine said.
THE NOMADS headlined the Point After during the final flowering of the cover-band club scene and helped keep live music alive in Waikiki during the height of the disco era. The name change to Aura took place in 1984 when a local record producer convinced them, as Christine put it, "That the name Nomads wasn't going to go over."
COURTESY OF THE MENDOZAS
The Mendozas were part of the Nomads in the '70s. Beverly (center, left) and Christine are surrounded by, clockwise from left, Bill Popaka, Clifton and Michael Mendoza. Adney Atabay, Albert Chaco, Brian Mendoza, Randy Amantiad, and Del and Dennis Mendoza.
The resulting recordings -- a single and an album -- didn't capture the group's proven power and pop chart potential, but the name stuck. They've been Aura ever since.
Beverly initially retired from the band when she married. So did Christine. The six brothers reorganized the group with Beverly's daughter, Kristi Doss Ching, as their female vocalist, and displayed their potential as a show band when they worked with Martin Nievera and arranger Louie Ocampo at the Outrigger Main Showroom and in concert at Blaisdell Arena.
Clifton, Michael and Vincent kept Aura going well into the '90s. Aura appeared to be on the verge of bigger things in 1996 when an impressive return engagement at the Outrigger proved them the most promising new local show band since the debut of the original Fabulous Krush.
But it wasn't to be. Aura took a mortal hit when two members quit suddenly to pursue what looked like a better offer at the time.
Now a third edition of Aura is testing today's band marketplace.
"We all thought that, although we all have day jobs and are normal people now, we do miss playing music, and we thought it was time we got started again, and that's why we're here," Christine said.
Is the original audience who came to see them each weekend at the Point After still in the mood to reminisce in 2003? Bev, Chris and the guys are hoping they are.
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