My First Friday Gig Downtown Honolulu

It was the First Friday I had ever attended. They had already banned drinking in the streets. The location was downtown Hotel Street. This was Hawaii's red-light district once. They opened up clubs, bars, and restaurants again. The streets were packed with party goers. I had one of my nieces and nephews passing out flyers. We had a little spot inside the club, where my other niece, Lela, was selling hotdogs and sushi. The bands lined up were the Winners of the Maitai Rumble, Jahlivity, Trish's band, and my friend’s son was supposed to be the DJ. He was hanging with his girlfriend in the crowd. We were having technical difficulties. The sound guy offered by the club decided to show up late. Someone pulled one of the main chords. I guess it was someone from a previous promotion, who didn't make the club money. So, out of spite, he decided to sabotage the show. Trish Nalei did her thing without the band and without sounds. She started jamming with her ukulele. She managed to keep the people in the club. She saved the show. I appreciate her. The band that came with her was quite mad that time didn't allow them to play.

We continued with the schedule. My contract states that payment is for playing, not for showing up. Trish Nalei played in spite of having no sounds and still managed to rock the crowd. She was one of my best assets during our adventure. She played at numerous venues that I hosted, including Aloha Tower and Gordon Biersch. Basically, she played at most of my gigs, especially Mai Tais. She was my back up band. The club had people trickling in regularly. We had 10 times more than the previous show the month before had. At one point, I went to the streets with my flyers to draw more people into the club. My nephew gave up after one round of passing out flyers. He came back with several of his friends, another guy and a girl. They were barely 20. The club owner allowed me to let them in if they didn't drink alcohol. So, I did.

My older sister, her husband and longtime friend, came and hung out in the VIP. I had some food on the table. My friend, Rocky, and her new boyfriend, my elementary classmate Jon, watched the front for me and collected the money at the entrance. Our first Friday drew over 500+ people. The Club Owner was pleased. She insisted that I do another show the following month. So we planned for another show.

That night, I was the Event Coordinator, the flyer girl, food seller, the photographer, and it was my first time to DJ live. I also learned that, no matter how much money you make a band, they are simply all about the money. Earlier during the week, I sent messages to two top bands that I was currently promoting to aid me in posting the flyer for the event that I had online. Not one of them responded. At that point, I made both of those bands close to $15,000 each. I had a few more gigs already lined up for them that amounted to $3000 each. Once I hit $18,000, I stopped referring gigs to them all together. All in all, it was a very good experience, but for real, if you are interested in this field, my only advice is to make sure your contracts cover you in every way possible. You never know what to expect. But know this—all that glitters isn't gold.