“How often do you guys get to hear steel guitar in Chinatown,” asks Buck Giles from the makeshift stage at thirtyninehotel on a Wednesday evening.

Umm.

“Right now,” somebody shouts back, and that just about sums it up, not just for the endangered native instrument but for Hawaiian music generally in what’s become Honolulu’s hottest nightlife neighborhood. And while on some level one might argue “fair enough,” given the neighborhood’s identity as something of an oasis from the crush of local music in other areas—there is more to music after all—it’s also possible to have too much of a good thing. The absence of any Hawaiian strains in this part of town is noticeable, and definitely isn’t helping the effort to attract more local folks down to east Chinatown.

That may be changing. Late last month, thirtyninehotel owner Gelareh Khoie and local music promoter Augie Rey launched Hawaiian Nights, a once-a-Wednesday sampling of Hawaiian music acts from old school to up-and-coming. So far, Khoie has hosted Pookela, the classic ensemble led by Greg Sardinha (they’ll be back tonight), Pula Melia, the Daniel Corpus and Paul Dunlap duo and, last week, the Essential Resophonics, featuring Giles and guitarist Diane Rubio.

So far, the crowds have been inconsistent. A couple dozen people showed for Pookela, but the audience for Pula Melia was no more than a handful. Still not a disaster for the establishment early on a Wednesday evening, but not exactly an ideal audience for the performers. Khoie told me a couple of weeks ago that she figured attendance would pick up as word spreads and summer approaches, and on the night Giles and Rubio showed up, it looked like she was right.

At 6:30, there were more than a dozen people already listening to Giles’ dreamy steel guitar, and that’s not counting the 15-or-so more gathered for a work party in the corner. Giles, a key member of ’90s It-band Frogchild, says he picked up the instrument about eight years ago after a chance meeting with the legendary Bill Tapia in Los Angeles. The way his playing quiets even a rowdyish pau hana crowd, you’d think he’d been at it much longer.

Thirtynine is maybe the perfect venue for a rebirth of Hawaiian music in this part of town, with its sun-drenched lanai and down-home feel. In conversations both direct and overheard, it was clear last week that a sizable portion of the audience had never been to the place before, and most seemed to be enjoying themselves. The cell phones started coming out at as night fell, and as 8 o’clock rolled around and the musicians began to wind down, the audience had about doubled. Cliched though they may be, the cries of “hana hou!” felt real, and Giles and Rubio stuck around long enough that the rhythm guitarist had to almost literally run out to another engagement when they were finally done. —Ragnar Carlson

Hawaiian Nights

Thirtyninehotel, 39 N. Hotel St., Wednesdays, 6–8pm, [thirtyninehotel.com]

Getting In: Free
Sightings: Whoever’s playing, whoever’s listening, us
Dress Code: Everything from clubwear to boardshorts.
Soundtrack: ‘Ulupalakua, Blue Moon.
Signature Drinks: Special tiki kitsch cocktails $4, most beers $4–$5

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