THE NIGHT STUFF
Boys on the Side's ample talent puts cover band front and center

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Clayton Apilando, on guitar, and vocalist Lisa Abella comprise two-thirds of the trio Boys on the Side, which performs Wednesday nights at Indigo's Green Room. Third member Jason Waldrep, not seen, performs vocals, guitar and keyboard. Boys on the Side infuses cover songs with their own style and is a true crowd-pleaser. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

First, some admitted bias. The cover trio's set list blended a large slice of music from my mid-'90s college experience, a smaller slice of my favorite current adult alternative rock leanings, and a sprinkling of small-kid time touchstones the parents used to play. What does that mean? With all that nostalgia and a mellow vibe working overtime (not to mention drinks readily available), it was going to be difficult for me to dislike any of it unless the band truly sucked.

Instead, Boys on the Side lent much of its ample talent and personality to its exquisitely stripped-down covers of comfort music for the Gen-X soul.

Lead vocalist Jason Waldrep often flipped through a dog-eared binder full of songs sitting on his keyboard for stuff he liked, while regularly taking requests from the crowd.

"Play some Lifehouse!" screamed a voice from the back of the room early in the evening. Immediate gratification in the form of crisp vocals and a superb tandem acoustic jam with lead guitarist Clayton Apilando on "Hanging By A Moment" followed. Apilando also contributed tasty acoustic flourishes of slack-key and Spanish fret work to unexpected mid-song solos on 10,000 Maniacs' "Trouble Me" and, most impressively, Sublime's "What I Got."

As good as Waldrep and Apilando were, the real treat of the evening was female lead Lisa Abella.

Gifted with an impressively versatile vocal range, Abella was as adept at lending the perfect sweetly plaintive lilt to Lisa Loeb's "Stay" as she was effecting a husky vox for Jewel's "Who Will Save Your Soul?" Abella's late-evening take on "Drops Of Jupiter" was a standout, with the singer contributing a powerfully throaty lead vocal and stylistic approach to the song far better, I thought, than Train's original.

Boys' audience seemed heavy with regulars. Hardly surprising, since the band has been a Green Room staple for the past couple of years. Until eight months ago known as Nani & Da Boyz, the boys have been Boys on the Side since asking Abella to cover female lead vocals for a temporarily departed Nani Medeiros. The band was confident and comfortable with its audience, often trading barbs at the expense of itself and the crowd.

"This is a chick song!" complained Waldrep, after Apilando began strumming the first bars of Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" for Abella. "Why do I gotta play a song that bashes guys?"

"Relax, this is a song bashing BOYS!" retorted Abella, as half the Green Room cheered loudly in agreement.

The crowd count was steady throughout the evening, easily filling the smallish, intimate space. The band — to its credit — played for 2 1/2 hours before taking its first break just after midnight.

Getting ready to settle our tab and depart, we were coaxed into sticking around by a welcome cover of David Gray's woefully underplayed (at least on local FM) "Babylon." We wound up staying another half-hour.

Got a night spot or club event we should check out? Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.

What: Boys on the Side

Where: The Green Room, Indigo Eurasian Cuisine, 1121 Nu'uanu Ave., 521-2900

When: 9:30 p.m.-2 a.m. Wednesdays

Cover: None

Under 21 OK?: No.

Age of crowd: early 20s-mid 30s

Dress code: Smart casual and business attire

Attire we saw: Casual to dressy. On women: dresses, camisoles, peasant blouses, stretch tops, jeans. On men: dress shirts, solid T-shirts, sweaters, jeans, khakis, dress slacks.

Our arrival/departure: 9:45 p.m./12:30 a.m.

What we drank: Kamikaze (ice), white Russian ($12.50 total)

Peak crowd while there: 40

Queue?: No.

Sample music: "Iris," "Superman (It's Not Easy)," What's Goin' On," "Slide," "Meet Virginia" performed live

Dancing?: No.

Overheard line of the night: "I'm putting in all new carpets at my place." — A male in the middle of some serious macking.