Waikiki Scene
Rhythm Klub plays to an eclectic crowd at Esprit

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

Tino Ibach, left, is the lead singer of Tino and the Rhythm Klub, performing at the Esprit nightclub in Waikiki. Other members of the Klub include keyboard-vocalist Hemingway Jasmine, back, and bassist-vocalist Elmo Custodia. The band mostly repackages the hit songs of mainstream musical acts such as Gloria Estefan and the Stylistics. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser Tino and the Rhythm Klub 9 p.m.-1:30 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Sundays through Tuesdays Esprit nightclub, Sheraton WaikÌkÌ Hotel $3 cover 922-4422

The group sizzles, with the engaging presence of up-front lead singer Tino Ibach, who has risen from the ashes of the Krush, where he was one of several featured vocalists. With a couple of fellow Krushers now part of the Rhythm Klub, the band is putting the "life" back into "nightlife" with songs and a regimen that folks love to boogie to at the Esprit club at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.

And Tino's high-energy posture — he's tall, mean, lean, always in command — is possibly the reason the other house band, Honolulu, no longer is part of the Esprit mix. He's got attitude and style, agility and stamina, assurance and sensibility — elements that clearly overpowered Honolulu in comparison.

Honolulu and the Krush had been sharing the Esprit spotlight until both groups were "raided" when key members joined the other dazzling new Waikiki show band, Society of Seven Las Vegas (currently at the Main Showroom of the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach). With the centrifugal forces gone, both acts had to reconfigure and relaunch. Obviously, one made it by redesign and fine-tuning; the other didn't.

Esprit, one of Waikiki's magnets for local folks, is an anomaly: It's a lounge, for kibitzing; it's a showroom, for listening and a watching; it's a disco, for dancing; it's a date spot, for meeting and mingling.

Tino and the Rhythm Klub appear to fit the mix of the multi-needs and mixed audiences, who come for different reasons; the two single women, scouting the guys; the four solo guys, ogling the unescorted women; the older ballroom dancers, who wait for the sambas and cha-chas to shine; the dude and his lady, who show off '70s-style disco flash on the dance floor; the sippers-and-watchers, who primarily focus on the stage but let the wandering eyes scope out the crowd.

The group is best in repackaging the sounds of proven mainstream acts — namely, hit medleys of tunes by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, Tower of Power and Earth Wind and Fire, complete with the requisite percussion, brass and aural fireworks.

But this is not a nostalgia troupe; the group also offers succinct representations of the Shaggy songbag and taps a variety of genres, from reggae to soul, from love songs to rockers.

The choices are sound and purposeful, enabling drummer Lucky Salvador (ex-Krusher), keyboard-vocalist Hemingway Jasmine (ex-Krusher), bassist-vocalist Elmo Custodia, guitarist-vocalist Les Fernandez, trumpeter-percussionist-vocalist Adney Atabay and saxophonist-trumpeter-vocalist Ricky Ricardo to flex and strut and demonstrate their strength and versatility in pumping out the brassy, percussive sounds of the supergroups. Tino himself plays occasional guitar but his mission is maneuvering through a powerful musical arsenal.

One of the medleys of distinction is a collage of Stylistics hits, tapping "Betcha by Golly Wow," "Side Show," "Have You Seen Her," "You Make Me Feel Brand New" and "Let's Just Kiss and Say Goodbye." The harmonies are taut, slow-dancing variety; the dancers cuddle up, cheek-to-cheek; some at tables hold hands.

While Tino handles lead vocal chores most of the night, Atabay periodically gets the spotlight. But clearly, the show is mostly Tino. He's dynamite on the body-gyrating numbers such as Ricky Martin's "She Bangs."

And Ricardo's sax serenade, from stage to the audience and back, is potent and powerful. Just one of the many unexpected surprises from the Rhythm Klub ranks.