BRING ON THE LUAUS >>>

Everybody, at some time or another, wants to escape from reality to a carefree paradise. For many Americans, Hawai‘i has served as the escape destination of choice, even if it's just a fantasy. It's been that way for well over a century now, ever since the Hawaiian Islands were made a part of the United States. For those dreamers who never made the actual trip, there have repeatedly been times when the craze or things Hawaiian brought a little piece of paradise home to Anytown, USA - Polynesian print sport shirts, Aloha (Casual) Fridays, Magnum P.I. and, of course, music.

Hawaiian music hit the American continent as early as the 1890s. A Hawaiian group playing a mixture of Western instruments (viola and flute) and Hawaiianized ones (‘ukulele and steel guitars) appeared at the Buffalo, N.Y. exposition, where they met famed composer and bandleader John Philip Sousa. In 1912, Broadway saw the successful run of a drama set in Hawai‘i called The Bird of Paradise, featuring authentic songs - most notably Queen Lili‘uokalani's already-classic "Aloha ‘Oe." The ragtime-Hawaiian fad really took off at the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition, a fair mounted on a grand, gilded scale to celebrate that imperial city's recovery from the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire. June 11, 1915 was "Hawai‘i Day" at the exposition. The Philippine Constabulary Band played "Old Plantation" while native Hawaiians sang. From 1915 through 1919, there were nearly 150 Hawaiian songs published in the United States, the great majority of them written by people who had never been near the Islands. Decades of gyrating women clad in grass skirts shaking themselves around carnival sideshows and nightclub stages followed. At the same time, understandably, recordings of Hawaiian music (then produced on thick, breakable 78 rpm discs that were 10 inches in diameter) were huge sellers. Hawaiian music schools flourished into the 1940s, and a few stragglers even survived into the '90s.

(Cut to the chase)

Then, on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 Tacoma Cabana tiki lounge opened an adjoining space, adding a stage for live Hawaiian music, as well as a retail space, and upstairs lounge with a pool table and dedicated Mai Tai bar. The new space will be open Friday and Saturday nights. Below are some pictures from its opening night.

Aloha.

TACOMA CABANA, 4 P.M. TO CLOSE TUESDAY-SATURDAY, 728 PACIFIC AVE., TACOMA, 253.222.4184, TACOMACABANA.COM