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Tour Dates 11/2 Toronto, ON @ The Drake Hotel
11/3 Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall 11/5 Concord, NH @ Bank of New Hampshire Stage 11/6 Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East 11/9 Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right 11/11 Vienna, VA @ Jammin Java 11/13 Annapolis, MD @ Rams Head On Stage Read More
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Hawaiian-born, currently based in Lawrence, Kansas, Kawehi (Kawehi Wight), billed as I Am Kawehi, headlined the Turf Club in St Paul on October 21st.
Opening the show was British singer/songwriter Waiting for Smith (Harry Lloyd)… his first stop on this tour, directly from London. When asked about his odd stagename, he said it was named after his drummer, who never showed up for practice. I guess he’s still waiting.
The former ski instructor had a lot of stories, including the fact that he’s currently staying at a “haunted” monastery, and how he bought a new acoustic guitar in Minnesota (only to accidentally drop it when he was switching guitars).
Like Kawehi, Waiting for Smith is a one-person band, so it came to a point in his set, for “Trade It In”, that requires a trumpet player. Obviously, he didn’t have a trumpet nor a trumpet player, so he made trumpet sounds with his mouth. That was a highlight of his set. It was somewhat cringey … but it’s part of the charm.
Most of his set were original songs, except for a Lola Marsh cover, “Only For A Moment”. He really loves the song and encouraged everybody to watch the ping pong music video.
Around the 25 minute mark, Waiting for Smith announced that he was going to play his last song, however, he quickly had to backtrack, after hearing instructions from the man on the soundboard. He was told he had to stretch out his set…. So without a beat, he had to improvised a Neil Young cover of “Old Man”, complete with bad falsetto, of course.
When I Am Kawehi came on stage, the audience all moved to the front of the dance floor.
“Good, I don’t have to ask you guys to come up front!,” Kawehi said, as she started to introduce her hilarious first song called, “Thanks for Saying I Look Pregnant.”
She followed this up with a cover of Nine Inch Nail’s “Closer”, with the explicit lines, “I wanna f*** you like an animal, I wanna feel you from the inside.”
After she ended the song, she confessed, “My parents hates it when I play that song... Sorry, Mom!”
One of the most interesting thing about I Am Kawehi is that she produces all the music on stage, all live, whether it’s her own original songs, or covers, like Dua Lipa. How she does this is using a looper to play back sounds. For example, she might play a guitar chord and set it on loop, while she adds another layer with a different instrument. It’s quite interesting to see it live and worth checking out if you haven’t seen it for yourself.
She mentioned that she only started doing it because band members can be unreliable (see naming for Waiting for Smith). She laughed and added, however if the drums sucks, then she is to blame, not the drummer.
Check out I Am Kawehi’s “The Quarantine Sessions on Tour”.
Opening the show was British singer/songwriter Waiting for Smith (Harry Lloyd)… his first stop on this tour, directly from London. When asked about his odd stagename, he said it was named after his drummer, who never showed up for practice. I guess he’s still waiting.
The former ski instructor had a lot of stories, including the fact that he’s currently staying at a “haunted” monastery, and how he bought a new acoustic guitar in Minnesota (only to accidentally drop it when he was switching guitars).
Like Kawehi, Waiting for Smith is a one-person band, so it came to a point in his set, for “Trade It In”, that requires a trumpet player. Obviously, he didn’t have a trumpet nor a trumpet player, so he made trumpet sounds with his mouth. That was a highlight of his set. It was somewhat cringey … but it’s part of the charm.
Most of his set were original songs, except for a Lola Marsh cover, “Only For A Moment”. He really loves the song and encouraged everybody to watch the ping pong music video.
Around the 25 minute mark, Waiting for Smith announced that he was going to play his last song, however, he quickly had to backtrack, after hearing instructions from the man on the soundboard. He was told he had to stretch out his set…. So without a beat, he had to improvised a Neil Young cover of “Old Man”, complete with bad falsetto, of course.
When I Am Kawehi came on stage, the audience all moved to the front of the dance floor.
“Good, I don’t have to ask you guys to come up front!,” Kawehi said, as she started to introduce her hilarious first song called, “Thanks for Saying I Look Pregnant.”
She followed this up with a cover of Nine Inch Nail’s “Closer”, with the explicit lines, “I wanna f*** you like an animal, I wanna feel you from the inside.”
After she ended the song, she confessed, “My parents hates it when I play that song... Sorry, Mom!”
One of the most interesting thing about I Am Kawehi is that she produces all the music on stage, all live, whether it’s her own original songs, or covers, like Dua Lipa. How she does this is using a looper to play back sounds. For example, she might play a guitar chord and set it on loop, while she adds another layer with a different instrument. It’s quite interesting to see it live and worth checking out if you haven’t seen it for yourself.
She mentioned that she only started doing it because band members can be unreliable (see naming for Waiting for Smith). She laughed and added, however if the drums sucks, then she is to blame, not the drummer.
Check out I Am Kawehi’s “The Quarantine Sessions on Tour”.
Waiting for Smith |
Waiting for Smith |
I Am Kawehi |
I Am Kawehi | I Am Kawehi |
I Am Kawehi at Turf Club, St Paul (2021-10-21) |
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