FRIDAY
>> Punk pioneers Descendents hits the stage
The Descendents have been to college. They’ve been on tour. Mostly, it seems, they’ve been on vacation.
But the punk band is back now, 41 years after getting started in Southern California and finding its voice as satirical burnouts complaining about parents, romantic frustration, job dissatisfaction and other problems of modern life.
Its very first album, 1982’s “Milo Goes to College,” came as lead singer Milo Aukerman was about to leave his bandmates for college studies in biochemistry, which he would teach for several years afterwards. With a purposely nerdy, Simpsons-like cartoon character on the album cover and hard-driving, rapid-fire style, the album ranks as a keystone of the Southern California surf hardcore punk sound.
The group reconvened with numerous times over the years, but produced only six more albums, including its last two, 2004’s “Cool to Be You” and 2016’s “Hypercaffium Spazzinate.”
Not surprisingly, “Hypercaffium Spazzinate,” which refers to the copius amounts of coffee the group consumes, reflects the angst that comes with aging, with songs like “No Fat Burger” and “Testosterone,” (they can’t have the former and want more of the latter). Fortunately, the band hasn’t lost its edge. “Undimmed by the decades, Aukerman and his crew thrash, crash and blaze gloriously,” said NPR in a review of the latest album.
Aukerman and original drummer Bill Stevenson lead the group. Guitarists Karl Alvarez and Stephen Egerton joined in 1986.
DESCENDANTS 2019 WORLD TOURAGE
>> Where: The Republik
>> When: 8 p.m. Friday
>> Cost: $39-50-$44.50
>> Info: 941-7469, jointherepublik.com
SATURDAY
>> Kanikapila celebrates local musicians
The Gabby Pahinui Waimanalo Kanikapila returns this weekend, with dozens of Hawaii’s best musicians jamming in celebration of the great slack-key guitarist and singer.
This year’s festival, the 12th, will be especially poignant as it will be first since the November death of Gabby’s son Cyril Pahinui, a tremendous musician himself and the founder of the festival. Cyril Pahinui started the all-day festival as a way to revive the weekend-long kanikapila that would sometimes bring more than 100 musicians to the family’s Waimanalo home.
“Aaron Mahi composed a traditional chant, so that will be opening the ceremony, and also Kenneth Makuakane composed an oli for Cyril,” said Chelle Pahinui, Cyril’s wife. “Many of the artists will be doing Cyril-related songs, in addition to Gabby-related songs.”
The event also pays tribute to broadcaster Jacqueline Leilani “Honolulu Skylark” Rossetti, who passed away in March, with an award being given in her name. Rossetti was a longtime host for several radio stations in the islands, a co-founder of of the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards and a popular emcee at the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival.
More than 50 performers are scheduled to appear, among them Jerry Santos, Led Kaapana, Alan Akaka, Ron Loo, Greg Sardinha, Kawika Kahiapo and Melveen Leed.
The festival also has a environmental component, with Sustainable Coastlines recruiting visitors for a beach cleanup along Windward beaches on Sunday. More than 1,800 people participated last year, with a few musicians from the kanikapila providing after-cleanup entertainment.
2019 GABBY PAHINUI WAIMANALO KANIKAPILA
>> Where: Waimanalo Beach Park
>> When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: Free
>> Info: gabbypahinui.com
SUNDAY
>> History film ‘Enemy Within’ screens at Hawaii Theatre
“Enemy Within,” a film about the Japanese fighter pilot who crashed off Niihau after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, gets a special screening film on Sunday at Hawaii Theatre.
Originally titled “Ni‘ihau” when first announced, the film drew some criticism for casting Caucasians as Hawaiians. Scottish filmmakers Gabriel Robertson and Ken Petrie recast the film, casting Joseph Naufahu, a Maori from New Zealand who appeared on “Game of Thrones,” as Niihau resident Ben Kanahele, and Beulah Koale of “Hawaii Five-O” as Haku Keli‘i. Filmmakers also worked with Hawaiian and Japanese cultural advisors to be “as historically accurate as we possibly could within the practicalities of making a film, in order to represent an event that is important in Hawaiian culture and history,” Petrie said, in a statement.
The movie tells the story of a Japanese pilot, Shigenori Nishikaichi (Kazuma Sano), who crash lands in waters off Niihau. He is originally treated well by islanders, who do not know of the attack on Pearl Harbor, but things change when they learn of the raid and that he took part in it. Nishikaichi’s presence also causes conflict within the island community, some of whom are of Japanese ancestry.
Filmmakers have shown the film to Niihau residents at a special screening on Kauai, who pronounced their approval, the filmmaker said.
The new cast also features local actor Kanoa Goo as the islander who discovers the pilot’s military gear, while other Hawaiian characters are played by Polynesians from New Zealand. The film was shot in Malaysia.
“ENEMY WITHIN”
>> Where: Hawaii Theatre
>> When: 10:45 a.m, 1 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. Sunday
>> Cost: $5 to $10
>> Info: 528-0506, hawaiitheatre.com
WEDNESDAY-APRIL 28
>> ‘The Country Wife’ debuts at the Kennedy Theatre
“The Country Wife,” a bawdy, ribald Restoration comedy, comes to the Kennedy Theatre in a presentation by the University of Hawaii Theatre & Dance Department.
Written in 1675, the play has a convoluted plot involving a rake, Horner (Dean Mo), spreading a rumor that he is a eunuch, so that his aristocratic male friends would let down their guard and allow him to seduce their wives. With sharp, witty exchanges among characters with pointedly loose morals, the play satirizes a puritanical era in England that had ended just a decade earlier with the restoration of the English monarchy under Charles II.
“It’s silly, naughty,” said theater professor Stacy Ray, who is directing the production.
The play feature period aristocratic costuming, with corsets and wigs, but look also for stylized acting techniques. “Everybody was posing,” Ray noted. “Men stood in a particular way. A man’s calf – how big and expansive it was – was considered a sign of his virility. So a man would stand with left leg straight but with right leg extended.”
Women will have their own flirtatious ways. “This was the time period of the language of the fan,” Ray said. “A woman would carry a fan and she could speak to someone silently through what I would call semaphore. She could speak to someone, silently, through her fan.”
“THE COUNTRY WIFE”
>> Where: Earle Ernst Lab Theatre, Kennedy Theater, UH-Manoa
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through April 27; also 2 p.m. April 28
>> Cost: $8 to $18
>> Info: 944-2697, etickethawaii.com
>> Note: A discussion follow the April 26 performance
For additional events, visit staradvertiser.com/calendar.
