Katchafire in H-Town

On Friday night Ashley and I went to Katchafire's Back to the Roots concert at the Altitude Bar in Hamilton (Katchafire's hometown). Surprisingly, this is the first time I've ever seen the group live since they are so popular in Hawai'i and perform there all the time. It was really cool to get to see them in their hometown. The concert was completely sold out and the energy of the crowd was really awesome.

Since we are both pretty short and were super stoked for the concert (also I forgot to put in my contacts, so I had to get up close if I wanted to see anything), we got there really early hoping to get a good spot up front. In fact, we got there before the bar even opened and ended up having to wait outside for a while, but it was cool, cuz we got to meet some girls from New Zealand's pro netball team the Silverferns who came down from Auckland just for the concert. They were really nice and fun to talk to.

When we finally got in the bar, Ashley and I made our way right up to the front and were standing there by ourselves for a while, but it was all worth it to be up front.

There were two local groups that opened for Katchafire, Tasty Brown and NRG Rising. I had never heard of either band, but NRG Rising was a pretty sick group fronted by a Māori mother and her two daughters. I loved their harmonies and their style, and especially the songs that had some Māori flair and lyrics.

Finally, Katchafire came on stage and played a really good set of their new music, and a lot of the classics, which was awesome. And you cant have a reggae concert without a little bit of Bob, so they played a couple covers. All in all it was a really good night. We got to get our skankin on and sang along up close and personal and just enjoyed the night =)

Here's a vid of Who You With by Katchafire. Not the best recording since I was too close to get the whole stage and the girl next to me kept knocking my hand, so I didnt end up recording the whole song.

Musubi Time =)

You can take the girl out of Hawaiʻi, but you can't take the Hawaiʻi out of the girl.

My new friend Ashley is a Cali girl that might as well be from Hawaiʻi. She's Filipino among other things, and has several attachments to Hawaiʻi, including her best friend, who is also named Kaʻiulani. Needless to say, we mesh pretty well, and its nice to have a new person to hang out with since most of the people I was close to last semester all went home a month and a half ago.

Anyway, one of our shared interests is local food, so we decided to make some SPAM Musubi. Delicious and disgusting all wrapped in nori =)

Unfortunately, we didn't have any white rice, so we had to use brown instead, which tasted fine, but doesn't really hold the shape too well. At least it was still 'ono ;)

Black Grace

Last night I got to see one of my favorite dance groups perform for the second time. I saw them a couple of years ago in my hometown Hilo and was blown away, not only by the beautiful Polynesian men and their flawless muscular bodies, but by the sheer athleticism and beauty of their dance. I didn't even realize that they were touring in New Zealand until a friend of mine posted about the concert asking if anyone wanted to go. Thank goodness I didn't miss it, since the show was being performed over the weekend and not just the one night only showings that I'm used to in Hilo.

The new show, entitled Waka was no disappointment and definitely held up to my already high expectations of the group. In fact, I walked out of this performance even MORE blown away than the first Black Grace performance I had seen! For one full hour, seven dancers (four men and three women) barely left the stage and danced the $h!t out of some of the most athletic choreography I have ever seen! There was so much control and trust going on onstage, and so much power in every single dancer. Not once in the performance did I see any hint of anything less than 100% hard hitting and precise movement. These guys should have been in the Olympics!!

I am so glad that I got to see them again.

Here are some highlights of their new show, Waka, courtesy of youtube. Enjoy.