The Big Kahuna?

Happy Valentine's Day, 2013.  Get your loving stuff done before Saturday night.  Then you can join us when we rock the Big Kahuna!

Uh-huh, you are correct, the poster says “rockin’ the Big Kahuna.”  We hoped that you noticed that the typeface is smaller than that used for the Sneaky Tikis and the Pups.  Both band names are above “rockin‘ the Big Kahuna.”  Both band names are arched.  “Rockin’ the Big Kahuna” is not.

To my artistic eye, “rockin’ the Big Kahuna” is the theme of the show.  But maybe the term artistic eye is wrong because the first iteration of the poster had a even bigger “Big Kahuna” -- above the band names.  That was changed to prevent confusion.  “It looks like the Big Kahuna is the headlining band.”

But I was committed to the concept and changed the poster consistent -- I thought -- with that commitment.  Maybe believing that a viewer would infer that “rockin’ the Big Kahuna” was the theme of the show was limited to my ego-invested mind and eye.  As we know, "committed" sometimes is a euphemism for “bull-headed.”  I may not have stepped back far enough from the canvas so to speak.

Based on some questions we received, the role of the Big Kahuna is not obvious to everybody who looks at the poster or the flier.   “Is the Big Kahuna a new band?”  “Does the Big Kahuna play surf music too?”  “Do we know anybody in the Big Kahuna?”  “Is the Big Kahuna a Bay Area band?”

Huh?  Huh!

Okay for those who asked, the Big Kahuna is not a new band or a Bay Area band.  The Big Kahuna is not a band at all.  Only two bands -- the Sneaky Tikis and the Lava Pups -- will play at Shine on Saturday night.

Of course, this begs the question, “Who or what is the Big Kahuna?”  In pre-missionary Hawaii, a kahuna was a priest, healer, prophet, or sorcerer, or an expert in a craft or profession.  A Kahuna Nui -- Great Kahuna -- was a master of many powers.  Hawaiian culture, however, did not have a “Big Kahuna.”

So we really cannot attribute the “Big Kahuna” to Hawaiian culture.  Rather, we have to look to pop culture.  In the movie Gidget, “The Big Kahuna” led a group of surfers.  The later Beach Party films -- universally derided in the surf community -- crowned the best surfer on the beach as the “Big Kahuna.” 

Sacramento may not have beaches or waves, but this Saturday night may be another stride in building a surf music community.  So we are sort of making this up as we go along.  If we have a band named “The Funicellos,” why can’t we rock the Big Kahuna?  Let's do that February 16 at Shine.

Leave a comment