Midlife Crisis' Rodney Lee's 70's NCR Recap

Rodney Lee has and is a huge proponent of all the retro music happenings around town and especially the 70's Nightclub Reunion series. Here's Rod's recap of the evening. Thanks Rod for all you do. You and your wife Paula are simply cool!!!

70′s Nightclub Reunion IX – Recap
Jun 12, 2011
Whew! What a night. Greenwood, Aura, Nueva Vida with Pauline Wilson, Power Point, and Phase VII.

As is the tradition, Greenwood started the night off. Before they could get to the chorus of their first song - Get Down Tonight – the dance floor was overflowing. And the dance floor stayed that way for the rest of the evening. The music was pumping and the electricity was flowing.

After snapping a few pictures, Paula and I jumped in to the sea of people. The songs flowed one into each other and there was no time to get off the dance floor. There was a chicken-skin moment when Greenwood started playing Summer Sun by the Jamestown Massacre. The whole dance floor was singing along!

And leading into Greenwood’s hana hou song, Robin Kimura took a stroll down MLC lane and asked how many people remember going to dances at Manoa Gym, Kaimuki Gym, and Nuuanu Y. Then they broke out with One Fine Morning by Lighthouse. As Robin explained it, One Fine Morning was symbolic as they felt like they came full circle from those days that they played the high school circuit.

The crowd wanted more.

Then Aura hit the stage. Aura rocked the house with Journey and other tunes from the late 70′s and early 80′s. I really mean it when I say they “rocked” the house. I felt like I was back at the Point After.

Next up was Nueva Vida. As I mentioned, the dance floor was packed shoulder to shoulder. But most of the people were just watching Nueva Vida perform. It was almost like attending a concert! Nueva Vida was solid. The sound was so polished. And when Pauline Wilson started singing Follow Your Road, the place went nuts!

As I was talking to Robin Kimura earlier in the night, he said that he was listening to Pauline Wilson playing with Nueva Vida earlier in the day during the sound check – and he was getting chicken skin. And when Pauline started singing Follow Your Road, I knew exactly what Robin was talking about. Chicken skin.

The fourth band up was Power Point. What can I say. When Power Point plays – it’s a party. Those guys have so much energy up on the stage. And that energy flows down to the dance floor. Mention Power Point to me and I immediately hear “When we party – we party hardy! When we boogie – we boogie woogie!“. If anyone was starting to fall asleep, Power Point woke them up!

Then to wrap up this memorable event, Phase VII took us through to the rest of the night. I knew I should’ve had a 5 Hour Energy earlier in the evening. I was mostly glued to my seat, enjoying Phase VII. But the Hawaii ’72 folks – they couldn’t be bothered squeezing in to the crowded dance floor. They just got up and were dancing at their table. Paula included. Sally called it their Flash Mob. LOL

And they weren’t the only ones. Other tables jumped on the bandwagon and started dancing at their tables too. It was almost like the whole ballroom became one huge dance floor! It was quite a sight to see. And quite an experience.

As the house lights went on and it was time to leave, we hung around – mostly because we didn’t want this night to end. But after the house lights went off and on a couple of time, we caught the hint and slowly headed out. But in the lobby, Sally caught Pauline Wilson and told her what a wonderful job they did. And Sally knows when a photo op presents itself, she asked Pauline if she’d pose for some pictures.


Photo courtesy of Sally


Photo courtesy of Sally

I was sharing with Pauline Wilson that when she sang Follow Your Road, it was a highlight of the evening. Pauline said that she couldn’t let the night go by without singing it for everyone. Thanks Pauline!

A big mahalo to Robin Kimura of Greenwood and Candy Au of the Ala Moana Hotel Catering office for putting together yet another successful and memorable 70′s Nightclub Reunion – the Final one. We’re sad to see it end. But we’re thankful for all the hard work that you and the band members put in to allow us to relive our younger days – even if just for one night.

And thanks to Sally, opso, snow, konaish, Yuki and friends, and Funkshun’s Frances Quinlan for joining us at table #29. We had a blast!

-posted by Cool Tropical Jazz LLC @