Buffett puts balmy magic into wet night
By Chad Pata
Jimmy Buffett took a packed house at the Waikiki Shell on a musical world tour last night as he wraps up his yearlong Tiki Time Tour in the Islands.
After an introduction by Don Ho, Buffett strode onto the stage in an orange aloha shirt and bare feet and went straight into a little-played tune, "Great Heart."
Knowing his crowd to be late arriving, he held back the big hits until about a half-hour in. The line out front stretched a quarter-mile from the gates, with some people taking an hour to get inside.
While he waited, he took us to his Mississippi roots with a "Hee Haw" sounding version of "Gypsies in the Palace."
"That song came from my third failed country career," joked the Caribbean Cowboy, who despite his globetrotting still retains his Southern twang.
As the audience swelled to standing room only, the sticky sweet smell of tequila and reefer filled the air, and Buffet did not fail to notice.
"That is either marijuana or doughnuts," he said, sniffing the air. "Someone's either hungry or going to be hungry soon."
Once the crowd had settled in, he began his series of more popular songs with "Son of a Son of a Sailor" and "Come Monday" with the talented Nadirah Shakoor doing the backing vocals.
His music at its base truly is country with simple guitar chords and songs about drinking hard, losing women and escaping. What makes him special are the artists he puts around him.
Any time he starts to get too redneck, you have Ralph MacDonald and Robert Greenidge on the steel drums and congos bringing in the island flavor. They came in particularly important in a sendup of Don Tiki's "The Natives Are Restless Tonight."
This set the sails on the world tour that would careen through Tahiti with "One Particular Harbor," our neighbor to the South with James Taylor's "Mexico" and Key West in "A Pirate Looks at 40."
After 30 years in the business, Buffett has met all the greats and respects what doors they opened for him. He dedicated the show to the late Gardner McKay, whose TV show "Adventures in Paradise" turned many eyes to Hawai'i.
Shortly thereafter he welcomed out the king of exotica Martin Denny to play the keyboards for a song. At 92, he doesn't move very well (they had to help him from his wheelchair) but the notes are just as sweet as they were 50 years ago.
After that, the show really found its legs. They wheeled out a thatched Tiki Bar, and Buffett welcomed out six servicemen to dance with the Coral Reefer Dancers to the opening bars of "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw."
"I just want to know who's defending the country tonight, 'cause it ain't me and it sure ain't you," he shouted as the girls brought grins to the soldiers' faces.
The house went up with everyone swaying and belting out the song. Even the high winds and spats of rain could not dampen their spirits.
He wrapped up the set with Henry Kapono striding out to sing a duet of "Volcano" and encored with a brand-new tune called "Back to the Island."
As the rain-slicked fans screamed and stumbled their way out of the show, they all thought how lucky they were that Buffett was a failed country singer.
Reach Chad Pata at Chadpata@mac.com.
