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FRIDAY-SATURDAY
>> Burlesque festival puts risque performance art on stage
Burlesque returns to the Honolulu Museum of Art this weekend for an eighth annual show, with local burlesque champion Violetta Beretta, pictured far right, bringing a parade of stars to Hawaii.
“We’re essentially bringing big-city burlesque to Hawaii,” said Beretta, director of the local Cherry Blossom Cabaret. “The focal point is bringing everything that the mainland and international performers have to offer.”
The show will feature more than 40 performers, and just their names suggest what you’re in for: Featured artists include Delilah Dollbaby from Australia, Diamond Minx from Canada and Satira Sin from Oregon, along with Hawaii’s Madamex and Luna Velour.
The fest also includes a preview of the soon-to-be-released film “Pineapples and Pasties,” documenting the eight-year history of the festival.
“It’s like a neat archive,” Beretta said. “You can see how the festival itself has grown, all the different performers who have come. That’s about 250 people over the eight years we’ve been doing it.”
While burlesque has a long history in many cultures, Beretta said a “neo-burlesque” movement is now burgeoning, as dancers and performance artists seek more freedom in their range of expression.
Contemporary burlesque also represents a feminist twist in that many of the performers — predominantly women — develop their own, female-centric routines.
“Our audiences are more female than male, and the situations that the performers tell stories about are not centered around male sexual fulfillment. It’s more centered around presenting different stories and scenarios, anything that the creative mind can dream up,” Beretta said. “Women are much more in control, and even the nature and presentation of the things done on stage have changed to reflect that.”
HAWAII BURLESQUE FESTIVAL
>> Where: Honolulu Museum of Art
>> When: 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday
>> Cost: $40-$55 ($100 VIP two-day pass)
>> Info: 532-6097, honolulumuseum.org
SATURDAY
>> The Get Up Kids not kidding around
They’re not kids any more, but The Get Up Kids remain dedicated to the confessional spirit and rock rebellion that brought them a following in their early days, when they really were kids haunting the Midwestern underground music scene.
Back in the 1990s, The Get Up Kids were known as one of the top “emo” bands of the era, through they didn’t buy into the description. “Nobody in their right mind wants to be called emo,” frontman Matt Pryor told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000. “It’s got such a whiny connotation that everybody’s like, ‘We are not an emo band.’ I think a lot of these bands are going to get bigger, but I don’t think the movement will be anything monumental when we look back at it.”
The band formed in 1995 in Kansas City, Mo., and received acclaim with its second album, “Something to Write About.” They’ve split and reunited a few times over the years, so they’ve released just six albums, with three of them — “On a Wire” (2002), “Guilt Show” (2004) and “There Are Rules” (2011) — reaching the indie charts. In addition to Pryor and keyboard player James Dewees, band members include Jim Suptic (lead guitar, backing vocals), Rob Pope (bass, backing vocals) and Ryan Pope (drums, percussion).
The group released a new album, “Problems,” earlier this year. It’s full of songs about classic themes of alienation from society and self-doubt, but perhaps with more sophistication than before, as in the tunes “The Problem is Me” and “Symphony of Silence.” Meanwhile, the band has tweaked its sound, but it still remains as rich as ever, with Dewees providing nice solo work on “Your Ghost is Gone.”
THE GET UP KIDS
>> Where: The Republik
>> When: 8 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: $22-$27
>> Info: 941-7469, jointherepublik.com
SATURDAY
>> Fusion band Hiroshima graces Royal Hawaiian venue
Hiroshima, the popular East-West fusion group and one of Hawaii’s all time favorite jazz bands, returns to Honolulu for reunion concert at The Royal Hawaiian’s Monarch Room.
June Kuramoto, a classically trained expert on the koto, a zither-like instrument from Japan, lends the group its unique sound. Her ex-husband Dan Kuramoto, who plays keyboards and a variety of wind instruments, was inspired to form the band in 1979 after growing up in Southern California hearing salsa bands in neighborhood dance halls, his grandparents’ Japanese music playing on the home stereo and his brother practicing jazz on the family piano.
The band has direct Hawaii ties in the person of keyboard player and Farrington High grad Kimo Cornwell, who Dan Kuramoto identified as the band’s “music director.” Bass guitarist Dean Cortez and drummer Land Richards round out the band.
Hiroshima’s Asian-inflected songs — they sometimes use Asian scales and tunings — have given the group remarkable staying power over the years, earning a Grammy nomination for the 1980 song “Winds of Change” and for its album “Legacy” in 2010. In Hawaii, the band is particularly remembered for a 1980s Hawaiian Electric Co. commercial that featured June Kuramoto playing koto.
It’s a nice touch to have the band performing at The Monarch Room. For generations the beachfront venue played host to some of Hawaii’s top musicians, with the Brothers Cazimero holding court there from 1982 through 1994.
HIROSHIMA 45TH ANNIVERSARY
>> Where: Monarch Room, The Royal Hawaiian Resort
>> When: 8 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: $45-$150
>> Info: 951-696-0184, 808ne.ws/ hiroshima, tix.com
SUNDAY
>> Native American flutist breaths life into his culture
Acclaimed American Indian musician R. Carlos Nakai brings his soothing, world-music sound to the Doris Duke Theatre this weekend.
Nakai, who is of Navajo/Ute ancestry, originally hoped to play traditional Western band instruments, playing in marching band in college. But an accident rendered him unable to properly play a brass instrument, so he returned to his roots and started to play traditional Native American flute, soon becoming a master and its foremost proponent.
Now 73, he has taken the instrument to new heights, blending its sound with western instruments like piano, wind and brass instruments and percussion as well as traditional Japanese and Tibetan instruments. Nakai also joined Maui slack-key guitarist Keola Beamer in the 2005 recording “Our Beloved Land.”
His 30-plus albums have featured commissioned works written for chamber and symphonic groups, and garnered 11 Grammy nominations, mostly in the New Age category.
For his performance at the museum, Nakai will bring his quartet: Will Clipman on drums, pan-global percussion and voice; AmoChip Dabney on saxophones, keyboards and voice; and Johnny Walker on bass and voice.
R. CARLOS NAKAI QUARTET
>> Where: Honolulu Museum of Art
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
>> Cost: $30-$50
>> Info: 532-6097, honolulumuseum.org
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