Japanese band delights Waikiki crowd
By Zenaida Serrano Espanol
Advertiser Staff Writer
Fans couldn't have asked for much more.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
The setting sun from Waikiki Beach. Japanese rock band TUBE — clad in aloha shirts — jamming on stage.
The Japanese rock band TUBE gave a free concert yesterday at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider's Banyan Courtyard to an audience consisting mostly of Japan tourists. TUBE performed to help bolster the state's tourism industry and said it will donate $5,000 to Easter Seals Hawaii.
The crowd at the free TUBE concert was treated to a 'ukulele performance by Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner Jake Shimabukuro. Local group Keahiwai also entertained the audience at the Sheraton beachfront yesterday. The concert attracted about 1,000 people.
"They only play summer songs, so when you hear them, you feel like summer is coming," said Sachiko Negami, 25, a TUBE fan since elementary school.
Negami, a resident of Yokohama, Japan, joined nearly 1,000 fans for a free outdoor concert of the popular band yesterday.
Delighted concertgoers at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider's Banyan Courtyard spilled out of the hotel lobby and onto the beachfront.
"We want to cry out as loud as we can, to the people of this state, that we love this paradise called Hawai'i," band member Nobuteru Maeda said in a press release.
Members weren't available for interviews yesterday, but said in earlier statements they have an enduring affection for the Aloha State. The band offered to perform to help bolster Hawai'i's tourism industry with Japanese visitors.
TUBE will donate $5,000 to Easter Seals Hawai'i, said Hiromi Nagata, an event coordinator.
The band members have a tie to Hawai'i: Maeda, Michiya Haruhata, Hideyuki Kakuno and Ryoji Matsumoto were married here.
The band's CDs typically feature Hawai'i-based themes.
Although reserved seating at the concert was limited to 250 people, the concert attracted nearly 1,000 fans, a hotel official said.
Among them was Yoko Kato, 29, who was born in Japan and lives in Cleveland. She got married Saturday and heard about the concert from her hairstylist.
"Just being in Hawai'i, it's kind of special because they also play music that's so Hawaiian," Kato said.
In addition to TUBE, the audience was treated to the local stylings of Na Hoku Hanohano Award winners Keahiwai and 'ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro.
"I think it's good for the Japanese tourists here to get to see one of the hottest bands from Japan play in one of their favorite tourist places, so that's great," said Keahiwai member Lei Melket.
Mailani Makainai Kalahiki, also of Keahiwai, said TUBE members gave them a generous "thank you" gift for performing at the concert.
"They were so nice," she said. "They got us harmonicas from Tiffany's, and it's even engraved."
Before the concert began, Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau spokesman Steven Matsuo presented the group with an official proclamation from Gov. Linda Lingle designating yesterday as "TUBE Day."
In 2000, TUBE put on a concert at Aloha Stadium that drew more than 13,000 fans from Japan, an event that brought in more than $20 million to the state's economy, according to the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau.
In 2001, members staged a free show at Kuhio Beach and presented a donation to Easter Seals Hawai'i, and last year, two members attended another Easter Seals Hawai'i event where they again presented a donation to the organization.
