Recovered from All Hallow's Eve? Don't know what the downtown festivities were like, but Waikiki was nuts, even in our little corner! Thanks to everyone who brought their costumes and good vibes--apparently there were drunken fights elsewhere. Saw some really good costumes, several Lady GaGas, including a male one, zombies (Joe's "speed dater zombie" was the best one by far) lots of bumblebees, vampires, all sorts. The girl in the "beer belly dancer" costume got robbed in the costume contest--a) it was a home-made costume, and b) it takes balls to walk around that undressed! Mrs. Fanelli was some character from Star Wars that if I was more nerdy I'd know the name of. If you were there, you saw the Elephant People, as Kevin was calling it. Hopefully someone got some pictures, 'cause I can't imagine we'll being doing it again anytime soon--for one thing, it took 3 weeks to grow a mustache! The security guards at Hickam (we played 5-6 at their carnival before the Rose) got a big kick outta my Lt. Dangle get-up.*
Thanks to the peeps from Lockheed and the other Defense contractors for requesting the Big Rock Stampede for their party on Friday at the I.R.S. ---we set the  record for bar sales EVER at the Rose, not surprising 'cause it was 100 degrees easily and drinking made it more bearable. The Japanese Self-Defense Force guys were rocking extra hard--and their favorite tunes? Beatles and Cheap Trick, how unsurprising is that?** Normally when 2/3 of the room clears out, it's alarming, in this case it was relief! Big Ups to Kimberly and Pat for grace under pressure. So, after 3 gigs in two days, we get to kick back a little this month--just Saturdays (and the one Sunday) thank you, whew!



*my neighbor asked if I was "Homeland Security"--in hot pants?? really??!! T. has never seen "Reno 911" so she thought I was just showing off my gams.
**my faves as well.

Ke Ora!
Another week's worth of gigs down, one week closer to All Hallows Eve! Should be fun--I was one of the judges for last year's I.R.S. costume contest, and man, there were some good efforts. Come down, Waikiki is the bomb on Halloween!
Big ups to new daddy Andrew for sitting in this past Saturday--the Perry and Price Show was fun, waiting around for 4 hours in order to play 6 minutes. (okay, that part, not so fun) Ho'okena was one of the performers that played before us which was cool as I've not seen their bassist Chris Kamaka (yes, those Kamakas) in years. And Lex Brodie was there!!! He's pretty spry for a 95 year old! We had Chris Deal of Resistor fame, the Jones ohana, and a room full of people unready for the rock treatment @ 10:30am. And, despite Fanelli and my naysaying, they LIKED us! Had a tourist in his sixties ask me for a pick, how cool is that!?* Kiwiboardist had his nephew listening in on the Internet down in the The Land of the Long White Cloud**--sorry they cut to commerial right when Rex was talking, that happened at the station, not at the show. And Andrew's new name is "David".
This Friday is Colonel Hathi's Brigade @ Red Lion University, and then then the Big Rock Stampede Saturday AND Sunday at the Irish Rose Saloon--Sunday being the second-ever Interfaith Edition of the Church of Elephant. Should be rocking, check us out!




*he was probably a guitarist who wanted to save .60 cents by getting a free pick.
**Aotearoa, New Zealand to the Europeans

Aloha Troops!
Man, this month is gig central--don't get me wrong, as I often say, "it's good to work, it's good to work"--just combine an increased gig load with weather that is hot enough to poach a brain inside it's skull... You get the idea. For those who weren't out this past Saturday, our illustrious drummer got his Bar Exam results back, so after he gets sworn in, he can go by "David A. Fanelli, Esquire".
This Saturday morning the Big Rock Stampede plays the Perry and Price Show, for an audience who pro'ly went to High School with King Kamehameha--like someplace between 65 and dead is their demographic--with special guest bassist Andrew, who'll be filling in for Kopps that night at the Irish Rose as well. Andrew, Steve (Elephant's founder) and I all played together back when Andrew wasn't old enough to get into a bar, 19 years (!!!??!) ago!

Aloha all!
Mahalo nui to everyone who came out to rock with the Big Rock Stampede this past weekend, especially those who made out both nights--we tried to play some stuff we've not played in awhile, even played a song we didn't know/never played before Sunday for a guy who royally stiffed us on the tip--big spender wanted an overplayed ditty pretty much any other band (including Hawaiian trios) in Waikiki plays and promised us a Grant note* if we'd hack our way through it so he could dance poorly with his GF--who was already dancing to what we were playing. Anyhoots, we play his request (not too shabbily) and he makes a big production of putting $2 in the bucket! Cheapstake! Thank God our Navy and Marine** friends were raised better, otherwise we'd not've been able to pay our bar tabs at the end of the night...
Light weekend coming up, just Saturday at the Rose, the rest of the month is gonna be nose to the grindstone as we have an appearance on the "Perry and Price" radio show coming up and an overdue album to mix--yes, there IS an Elephant CD in your future! In time for Xmas!



*$50, in case you didn't know. hey, i didn't, i'm far too poor to be dealing with those!
** rock on 33 Scout Snipers!! my grandunkle was an Admiral in the Corps, so much love for the Marines. 'course both moms and pops miller were Naval officers, so you know MY fave branch.
***"The Bravery of Being Out Of Range", Roger Waters

Aloha all!
Big ups to everyone who made it out to the gig(s) this weekend, especially those who came both nights.* The Friday debut of Colonel Hathi's Brigade @ Red Lion was WAY cool and went well enough that Edow wants to book it once a month! The lovely Dyann came down, as did Phil Slash and Rexie--you shoulda just brought your keyboard, you stayed 'til closing anyway!--and birthday boy's sweetie Celine. The Fanelli's and I ended up closing Kelley O'Neils after, which was fun, but boy I was paying the price in the morning, jeez...
Since he got yelled at**, Rick got up from his deathbed and brought his drums down and played Saturday night, despite being sick as a dog, allowing birthday boy Dave to take the night off. Much love to Kubbaca for grace under the weather and for rocking as hard as possible while trying not to vomit.*** We had the lovelies from the Hard Rock Cafe in the house, T and C, (why'd you disappear? we were actually gonna play Bryan Adams!) D and his GF--who've we've not seen in far too long--Chris Coates, Kamulea, lots of friends. Mahalos to everyone who came down, especially everyone who I've neglected to name--I know it sound bullshit, but we literally can't exist as a band without you guys. Elephant only rocks as hard as we do because you rock with us: U > us, so as long as you're around, there's the Big Rock Stampede. 

*which'd be Arron and Joy
**not by me
***which is honestly about as rock and roll as it gets. we forgot to play Epic! How could we forget that??

Hey, I forgot to mention two important bits of news: this Saturday is David Fanelli's natal day, so if you see him out and about Saturday (pro'ly with the lovely Mrs. Fanelli) be sure to wish him "Happy Birthday" and/or buy him a cocktail. If you're at the Colonel Hathi's Brigade gig @ Red Lion University tomorrow--and why wouldn't you be?--you can do it after midnight. The part of drummer in Elephant will be played by the Estimable Richard Kubach--aka "Kubacca"--at our gig Saturday night. As always, the part of "me" will be played by me...
Speaking of things played by me, the mighty (terrible) CHEESUS is re-forming for ONE NIGHT ONLY at Anna Bannana's Wednesday Sept. 23rd. If you've ever seen CHEESUS, you know, that's all I can say--Dave  had so much fun at the final gig, he was THROWN OUT.*  Oz and Testies are in town for a wedding, (no Gaynabler, sorry) so in the slapdash, half-ass tradition that is CHEESUS, we're putting on a show! It'll be nice to see some of the crew who NEVER bother to come see Elephant anymore, ahem coff coff...



*he almost got into a fight, although I'm not sure he was even aware of it.

Is what you should tell me anytime you see me out--seriously, did I NEED to close 2 bars and then OPEN a third? You tell me, I can't remember any of it. Fun was had, or so I'm told. Those who made it out Saturday got to hear the debut of not one but two new Elephant original songs, freshly written! Exciting, although there was a lotta starring at bit of paper with chords/lyrics on it. The Jimmy Cliff/J. Geils sounding one came off better, we gotta figure out a tempo for the one that's my fault--we played it so fast the words got buried, which is a shame as Fanelli definately wrote a good line of two for that one. This Saturday we'll try it at a less breakneck speed, hopefully with less me screwing up the chords--which I wrote, you'd figure I'd know 'em!

Good morning!
Okay, let's start off by bitching, shall we? Why does the Honolulu Weekly always forget to list us the first Saturday of every month? (occasionally they'll not list for the ENTIRE month) Did I do something to them in a previous life, or the current one?! How hard is it to remember we play EVERY frickin' Saturday?? Again, these are the same people who fired Dean C. and replaced his prose with the chick who writes "Sociallite", a weekly list of names dropped apparently written by someone who came in 4th @ the Special Olympics*.
Anyway, on to POSITIVE things--last Saturday was lots of fun, it was young Master O'Donnell's birthday, and after midnight it was (slightly less young) Master Hatfield's natal day, so we played some music for them--in Tattoo Mike's case, he got to SING his birthday song. We played 2 songs in a row for Shantelle--Outshined (!!) ** and Hey Man Nice Shot, . Even though we were Rex-free, I decided to play Bennie and the Jets, figuring I'm so awesome I could pull it off--errr, nope! We had Tonya back from her frigid homeland, the pretty dreadlock girl leaving the Islands, (boo...) our all-time fave Canadian Christine, (who got her Bryan Adams song for once) Cayenne modelling the best t-shirt ever***, just rockingness everywhere and the best part, since we didn't have to tear down, we could hang out afterwards! Fanelli and I went to Coconut Willies and had shots and Chimay with Brit-Brit, Jeff Commado, and several of the previously mentioned lovelies and then managed to talk our way into Kelley O'Neil's after last call. Poor Dave dropped some of his meat sandwich on the sidewalk and there were tears, it's true...
Sunday Church Of Elephant was kinda a paid rehersal--we played Someone To Shove twice, but only 'cause we'd never played it before and Pat has been on us to learn it for more than a year--but it was great to work with April,**** who busted me checking her butt out--I'd say sorry, but I'm only sorry I got caught. Anyway, it was fun, we played songs we've not played in awhile--Shadow was stoked we played Conquistador (which he said we hadn't played in a year--almost true, we played it the week previous at the Waterpark and the Rose). It's a nice feeling when someone likes one of your original tunes..




*No medal, no hug for you
**which Kev never wants to do, he was in a rocking mood I guess
***a one-of-a-kind Elephant babydoll
****sporting her 2-of-a-kind black Elephant spagettistrap!

Aloha all!
Time for another batch of witless wisdom from the mouthpiece of the gray herd. Another rockin' weekend down, in what seems like the Neverending Un-Tour--hmm, I like that! I guess this Saturday was kinda like a tour, as we had to hump our gear and a stolen public address system to the Westside, Wet'n'Wild Hawaii, to rock out for lots of dripping wet people. We had the Satellite Grey guys and girls and the PIMPBOT from Waikiki, as Fern is want to say. We set up 20 ft. from the liquor and the smoking area and the PIMPBOT boys bellied up to bar immediately--they're rockstars! That's how they roll, MF-ers! The Big Rock Stampede had order cocktails to keep up. It was great to see Rylan aka "Big Sexy" on the gig, as he's been outta commission for a bit. Go see them @ Red Lion on the 4th before they go off to do their Asian tour, ie; the kinda tour that moves around.
I'd never seen Satellite Grey before, they're good, much more technical than us--they're like Rush, and we're like loud and terrible.* The bassist was especially impressive, considering his bass was nearly as big as he is--he's got a wah-wah! How friggin' Cliff Burton is that!!?? Awesome! The cool thing was since both of the other bands are primarily original music bands, we figured we'd better bring the orginal rock as well so we played songs we've never played with Kopps OR Rex, including  Conquistadors, a tune we've not played since Steve left the band. It's really heavy, like boot to the head, make Adam Carr's mouth fall open** heavy--since we re-learned it for the waterpark gig, we played it again at the Rose that night, much to Tattoo Mike's joy (i think it's his favorite song we play, he's actually sang it with us before!)
The I.R.S. gig started super-slow, but got hot and crazy by the end--despite gear malfunctions--sparks flying outta Kopper's rig--and general "we just PLAYED a gig, we're tired" malaise, rocking-ness was achieved! We're pros like that.
This week it's the Church Of Elephant, come down Saturday AND Sunday if you can!

*not really, but we definitely won if volume was the yardstick
**quite literally.

Guten Morgen, Meine Damen und Herren!
Welcome to yet another installment of "Something I'm doing at the lab that's isn't remotely work-related"--which is perfect, as you're reading this at your job and not working either! Nice when the Universe works like that.
This past weekend the Big Rock Stampede, aka the Daves and the other dorks, had to compete with both The Black Eyed Peas (which is a both a really crap pop band and a yummy Southern foodstuff--seriously, I love black eyed peas) AND one of the 6,000 Marley children--Zeppo? Billy?? Curly??? Ziggy, that's the one!--at the Shell. Drummer Dave really wanted to be at Bayfest, but to his credit showed up to the gig and pounded the hell outta the tubs, and even sang a bit of "Boom Boom Pow" for those who also had to forgo seeing Fergie and co. I wanted to go Friday and see Filter--a little birdie told me they weren't particularly great, apparently the tour guitarist was more concerned with striking poses than actually playing--so we played Hey Man Nice Shot--which, ironically, I f---ed up the first 2 choruses of because we've not played it in awhile and I'm old and forgetful. Big ups to Arron for jumping up to belt it out. We had a couple of guest throats, including Rob "Stone" Jones from the Star 101.9 Made In Hawaii dealy earlier.
For those who don't know, once a month Star does a promotion where they give local bands a chance to play at the Irish Rose and they play one of the band's songs on Star 101.9 for the week. Elephant has done it twice, opening for ourselves as it were--wierd, but whatever. This past week the band scheduled to play opted out, so our friends in the Stone Jones Band stepped up at the 11th hour, with a borrowed bassist, and kicked some ass!
So, this Saturday bring the kiddies out to the Park Formerly Known as Hawaiian Waters as we've got PIMPBOT, Satellite Grey, and Elephant playing for your splashing and sliding pleasure! You can see our knees--in my case, it's scary! Should be fun, I think we're doing an "all original set", as that's what the other bands are gonna do...