GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
DJ Bennie James gets into the groove while spinning tunes during "Mana Lounge" at Gordon Biersch.
Aloha Tower
gets soul
IT'S SATURDAY night, and you're deciding where to go for a night "In Da Club." Tired of moving it like a snake? Don't want to go through another evening of dodging aloha-shirt-wearing, Heineken-guzzling braddahs wanting to throw down because they thought you were looking at them funny?
Power at the Tower
"Mana Lounge" one-year anniversary with DJ Bennie James and special guestsWhere: Gordon Biersch Brewery, Aloha Tower Marketplace
When: 10:30 p.m. tomorrow, 21 and over
Call: 599-4877
Well, Gordon Biersch might well be the place to check out this weekend, as London-born DJ Bennie James celebrates one year of bringing the "Mana Lounge" to Aloha Tower Marketplace.
For James, who first arrived in the United States back in 2000 and later moved to Honolulu with his wife and 2-year-old son, Saturday nights are an extension of his Thursday morning show on KTUH-FM, the college radio station at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Although James is not a student, the opportunity to spin the music he loved as a community member and continue a career that started 10 years earlier at home in London was too good to pass up.
"I tuned in to KTUH by fluke ... and just could not believe what was playing," James explained over a cup of coffee at Volcano Joe's earlier this week. "No commercials, just deep R&B funk, and I was blown away. I really wanted to be a part of it."
After a year of waiting and the subsequent radio training, the "Soul Breakfast" was born, airing on Thursday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon.
"It's very much on the non-commercial tip," he says when I ask about the music people hear when they tune in. "If I play out, I might play stuff like Kool and the Gang ... but on the radio it's definitely more on the deeper side.
"(I'll play) everything from Maxwell to Sade, to all the neo-soul type stuff."
IT WAS the "Soul Breakfast" that also got James into Gordon Biersch a year ago. After spending time with Urban City Entertainment at Don Ho's Island Grill, one of the bouncers there offered to set up a meeting with a manager at the Aloha Tower Marketplace brewery. The restaurant was offering live entertainment on Saturday nights, but wanted to hire a DJ to keep the crowd there after the band finished performing around 10 p.m.
"I guess there's a lot of things in Aloha Tower to choose from," James says. "They wanted something different to attract a crowd."
Fortunately for him, as well as his fans, restaurant management believed in his skills and decided to take a hands-off approach to the night.
"This is one of the few places where they don't tell me what to play, and they don't restrict anything," he says. "I could play a Dr. Dre tune with cussing in it and everything, and the next minute I'm playing a love song.
"It's whatever I feel, and it's totally cool."
TOMORROW'S anniversary celebration starts with a performance by eight0eight from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. and James on the decks afterwards until the bar closes around 2 a.m. "I think it's a good way to say thanks to the people and also encourage a lot of people who haven't been there before" to come back again in the future, he says.
In addition, James invited a few special guests to Gordon Biersch this week. "I've invited the Waikiki B-Boys to come down," said James. "To watch those guys do their stuff to funk music is amazing."
Other invitees include the DJs from Positive Regime and the Sisters in Sound's DJ Marloca, who will pop in for a quick set before heading to her crew's monthly "ISIS" party at Auntie Pasto's on Kapahulu Avenue.
After spending time in Australia, Greece, Portugal, Sweden and on the mainland, James says that his experience here in Hawaii ranks near the top of his travels. And while his "Soul Breakfast," and ultimately his time in the islands, will eventually come to an end, he remains appreciative of the opportunity to play his favorite music and get paid to do it while living in paradise.
"I miss London sometimes, but when I go back, no doubt I'm going to miss it here," he said. "I'm not getting any younger ... (I've got to) follow my dream, you know what I mean?"
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