Classic Rock Again by Chaotic Five

I was lucky enough to catch another free performance by Chaotic Five at the Ala Moana Center last night (April 14). Chaotic Five is billed as Hawaii's "youngest classic rock group" and for good reason. All of the songs they sing predate their own existence by at least 15 to 20 years, many songs much older.

Chaotic Five consists of five school aged kids less than 15 years old each. The group is fronted by female lead singers Chloe Salacup with lead guitarist Kalliyan Davis filling in from time to time. Rounding out the group are drummer Ethan Salacup, bass guitarist Caramon Ramos and Raistlin Ramos on keyboards and rhythm guitar.

The classic rock repertoire include covers of Queen, Judas Priest, Bon Jovi, Journey, Metallica, Blondie, Heart and more. The female singers give the songs a slightly different twist with all of the instrumentation, original and authentic to the way we remember the songs from the records.

Chaotic Five have played at a number of venues around Oahu including the Michael W. Perry  and Larry Price radio show on KSSK and interviews on Oldies 107.9 FM radio with Ed Kanoi. They have also been showcased in a series of youth rock concerts held at the Hard Rock Cafe.

The band maintains a Facebook website at:
https://www.facebook.com/ChaoticFive

Video Streams are hosted on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/KalliyanD

More Photos:

All photographs by Mel
Flickr Photo Chaotic Five Set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/macprohawaii/sets/72157629824607933/

Slideshow on Flickr (130 images)
http://www.flickr.com//photos/macprohawaii/sets/72157629824607933/show/

Video: Living on a Prayer - Ala Moana Center 4-14-2012



Article in MidWeek: The Cradle Will Rock (March 14, 2012)

Previous Blog Entry: Classic Rock Lives in Hawaii

Chaotic Five: Classic Rock Lives in Hawaii

There is hope rock still lives in the next generation. Caught a free Ala Moana Shopping Center concert featuring these pint size rockers who excel in musicianship and can belt out the classic rock tunes with the best of them. They're Chaotic Five, billed as Hawaii's youngest classic rock band.

Young they are. Most of them seem to be just around 10 years old... maybe younger. The songs they sing are decades older than they. Last night's set included covers of Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," Heart's "Barracuda," Guns n Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine", Blondie's "Call Me" and Journey's "Separate Ways" and "Anyway You Want It". Wow. They rock.

Check the video links below:





More Links:

Chaotic Five on YouTube

Chaotic Five on Facebook

Local Music Pictures From Hawaii

The slide show shown above are pictures I shot at various live venues in Hawaii, mainly in Honolulu over the past few years. I don't go out to many live concerts mainly because of the cost. However there are plenty of free or nearly free live music opportunities to listen to and photograph some of Hawaii's most popular and upcoming talents around.

As most people know, Hawaii has a large "homegrown" music industry here consisting of tourist oriented hula shows, a traditional Hawaiian music recording industry and the popular "island music" genre populated by artists who mix Hawaiian music in with reggae, R & B, and rock n roll. There is also plenty of rock, country, alternative, pop, jazz and island grown hip hop music artists that don't get as much mainstream exposure in the islands as mainstream Hawaiian and "island music" styles.

Then there are parades and sports activities where marching bands are common, the most well known being the City & County of Honolulu's Royal Hawaiian Band. They play at various venues including concerts, mall appearances, schools, grand openings and parades. The University of Hawaii Rainbow Marching Band is also popular making appearances at most home football and basketball games. They recently recorded a video of the "Hawaii Five-0" theme song which you can view a few posts below this one.

There are many public and private grade school and high school marching bands added to this colorful mix too. The bands perform at various events including concerts, sporting events and parades.

Lastly in the area of fine arts, the Honolulu Symphony is on hiatus with the status of its return doubtful as the organization is mired in a long and bitter bankruptcy procedure.

Taikojuku Miyako Drummers at Ala Moana

Shot video and photos of this Taiko drumming group from Japan. The performance was set in conjunction with the week long Honolulu Festival that has been going on in Honolulu celebrating Asian and Pacific culture in Hawaii. The Taiko drums were one of several events that occurred around town to commemorate the event. Honolulu Festival is supposed to conclude today with a parade in Waikiki.

"Taiko" is a type of several Japanese drums, used in recent years in ensemble casts such as the Taikojuku Miyako group who did this performance.

The pictures and video were shot at Ala Moana Shopping Center's "Centerstage" area, a place where frequent, free musical performances take place. Ala Moana Shopping Center maintains a Centerstage performance schedule at their website.

Cecilio and Kapono on KGMB Sunrise

Cecilio & Kapono live on KGMB's Sunrise news show, August 21.


One of Hawaii's most popular and enduring recording artists, Cecilio & Kapono gave a short, open public concert performance at the KGMB TV studios parking lot on August 21. Morning news anchors invited the public to come and watch the live broadcast. Since I live near the KGMB TV studio on Kapiolani Boulevard, I walked over to the parking lot and found the group there, mostly waiting around for tape to roll.

If you know anything about TV, most of the time working on a production is spent waiting. I was there at around 6:45 am and the station did not shoot the live segment until the 7:30 am hour. In the meantime I and a very small group of people waited around and talked to each other and the two performers.

Not surprisingly for me, we ended up talking about computers among other things. Found out that both C & K are avid Macintosh computer users. We talked about the Garage Band software, computer security, identity theft and risks of using a standard Windows PC online. Cecilio is an avid golfer and he talked about using a GPS based golf course hardware device. Cool.

They jammed for a few minutes warming up and once they started playing Cecilio & Kapono treated us to about 4 or 5 songs. They included well known classics such as "Goodtimes Together," "Highway in the Sun" and "Friends". I think they also sang a song I had not heard before called "Back in the Day" which I heard again on their website.

After the broadcast I found that several of the KGMB News morning people are fans as they ended up posing for pictures with the legendary duo.

Cecilio & Kapono are coming out with a new album on September 1.

Additonal Links

• More Photos
• KGMB TV
• Cecilio & Kapono "Back in the Day"
  

C & K with KGMB Sunrise weatherman, Ben Gutierrez.

Greg Hammer Band

I rarely go out of my way to see live music. Last weekend I did not go out of my way to see the Greg Hammer Band. They were however performing at the free Honolulu Family Festival carnival that was held on Magic Island, Ala Moana Park from July 30 to August 2. I was there on Saturday night, August 1, mainly to test out a new lens I got for one of my old Minolta 35mm SLR film cameras.

After taking photos of the sights at the carnival, I settled down in the large show tent where a kids performance was taking place at one end while I ate. I was at the far end from that show but very close to the other performance stage where the band was setting up.

The Greg Hammer Band took stage right after the kids parade was over. They are a cover band and that played some great top 40 and rock n roll hits from mainly the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s. Nearly all of the songs were radio gems that I grew up with. "Vehicle," "No Time," "Play That Funky Music," "You Made Me So Very Happy", "Get Ready," "I Just Want to Celebrate," and many more. They did a great set of hits popularized by Chicago which included "Make Me Smile," "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is" and "Beginnings".

The band's vocals are handled by Greg Hammer, who bills himself as "Hawaii's premiere singer/impressionist". Impress he does as he handles the vocals with nearly perfect recreation of the artists he covers including Elvis Presley, The Commodores, Chicago, Rare Earth and more. He is backed by a tight band that keep the vibes and rhythm going. I totally enjoyed the night's show. It was great to hear all of those old hits in a live setting.

The Greg Hammer Band has a regular gig at Dave & Buster's in Honolulu.


MEL'S OLDIES OF THE WEEK
As submitted to Plannine's Classic Top 30 site

1. Pretty Lady - Lighthouse
2. Who's Lovin' You - Jackson 5
3. Summer Sand - Dawn
4. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
5. Revolution - The Beatles
6. Feelings - The Grass Roots
7. Long Time to Be Alone - New Colony Six
8. Tiny Bubbles - Don Ho
9. Convoy - C.W. McCall
10. Birds of a Feather - The Raiders