So much fun

I have great respect for pop music.  I have great respect for prof musos, for their chops, for millitary bands (always capable players), for American music especially of black descent. Maybe not so much for our shared military exploits or that ridiculous subs deal, but let's leave that for now.  I've just seen Hana Hou! USAF Band of the Pacific and they were playing a short gig of popular music and it was fabulous.  A singer out front and rhythm section of guitar, keys, bass, drums, and a horn section of tenor, trumpet and trombone.  And the mixer up the back, of course.  They played 9 songs, although there was a medley of Stevie Wonder (I thought I'd heard an intro on Superstition and then it wasn't).  The singer merged into the audience in the madly raked little theatre at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, inviting a couple and some kids and some TAC staff onto the stage to dance and one young girl to sing, which she did surprisingly well.  All good audience interaction.  And some blowing solos, several from tenor and one trom and a few blaring guitar outings, all pentatonics up the neck, screaming fast stuff, perhaps some wah, all thrilling.  The drums and bass were not features but they were the supremely solid but interesting and busy back line they should be.  And those horns just glowed brightly with backing lines.  BTW, the bassist was the MD.  I didn't get names.  But everyone walked out with a smile, plenty had a chat, to singer or guitar mainly, both available.  Pop music is a great field that has its own special demands, the grooves and the melodies and the performances that seem simple but aren't too easy to create in the first place and then pull off.  These guys did it off so well, and loud.  So what did they cover?  Steve Wonder, Korea's BTS, James Brown, Uptown funk, Play that funky music, Michael Jackson, KC & the Sunshine Band.  That stuff: fun to boogie and funky.  I had a great time and I was not alone.  And thanks to the US Embassy for organising the visit: a good side of AUKUS perhaps?  PS, "Hana hou" translates from Hawaiian pidgin as "do it again" or "one more time" as in "Bravo".

Hana Hou! USAF Band of the Pacific performed a pop set at Tuggeranong Arts Centre.