POIPU — Zion Thompson, guitarist and lead vocals for award-winning Hawaiian reggae band The Green, says he can’t think of a better reason to come to Kauai on Saturday than performing at the Tamba Halloween party at the Poipu Beach Athletic Club.
“We want to thank Kauai on behalf of The Green for always showing us love and for supporting us,” Thompson said. “We’re super stoked to come and jam. A little bit of off time is something that we’re not used to, so we’re really antsy to get on stage and go mental. Plus, everyone is going to be dressed up and it’s gonna be just wild.”
The four-time Na Hoku Hanohano award winning-group returns to the Garden Isle after more than a year when The Green performed an acoustic set with the Dirty Heads at the same venue they’ll perform tomorrow night.
For us, it’s going to be a fun show because we know we’re going to have everybody there who have been with us since day one,” he said. “And all the fans from Kauai, too, that we love and haven’t seen in a long time and maybe couldn’t make it to the last show we did.
Fans may expect two new songs that haven’t been performed in front of the Kauai crowd.
“‘Mama roots’ is an ode to roots reggae music; the song ‘Roots’ is the same thing,” Thompson said. “That’s where we came from. That’s where The Green came from. Those songs are a sign what our new album is. It’s going to be progressive, but it’s also going to be rootsy. We’ll be playing the old songs with that rootsy fire again.”
Formed in 2009 on Oahu, all six members of the band were part of the same music scene. They got together, started recording and put out their first album in 2010.
“Myself and Ikaika Antone, our keyboardist and other lead singer, we’ve been playing in Kailua for a long time in various bands along with Brad Watanabe (he was in Ooklah Da Moc and Melodious Solutions),” Thompson said. “We knew each other and there was also Caleb Keolanui and JP Kennedy from Next Generation. They had songs on the radio. We just stuck together and started recording together as this group.”
The Green exemplifies contemporary Hawaii reggae with hints of pop and overtones of roots reggae sounds.
Influences of the band include, Aswad, Steel Pulse, the Wailers, Alpha Blondy and Freddie McGregor — everything from the old school stuff to the newer dance hall.
If you ever walk on their bus, chances are you might hear Shania Twain, Bruno Mars, EDM, Hawaiian, country, Hip Hop.
“We have a real wide diversity of music,” he said. “We just have a history of loving music and playing music in our families. Like most local families, we kind of just kept going and focused a little more and are blessed and lucky to be able to do that.”
Coming off a summer tour on the East Coast and West Coast, The Green plans to put out a new album early next year and tour in venues which include New Zealand.
“We got some video stuff coming up that we’ve been working on called the Alive series, which is named after a song from our first album called, ‘Alive,’” Thomson said. “It’s a series of short three-minute videos you can watch on your phone. They’re just real short, beautiful, quick videos. It’s more versatile content.”
Tickets for the event may be purchased at TheGreen808.com. With special guest Shilo Pa, the Tamba Halloween Party begins at 5:30 p.m. All ages are welcome. Tickets are $40, while VIP tickets are $80. The VIP section is only for ages 21 years and older.
