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Do It! Amy Hanaialii, Reel Big Fish, more

FRIDAY, DEC. 7

Hanaialii comes to PCC with music in mind

“I’m a very strong believer of living in the moment, feeling everything you can at that moment and tying everything together,” says singer Amy Hanaialii, the multiple Grammy nominee and Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner.

The title of her latest project, in a few simple words, is a graceful example of that. “Amy Hanaialii: My Father’s Granddaughter,” started out as an album of lullabies and love songs compiled with her 6-year-old daughter, Madeline, in mind.

“When she’s on the road with me and having a hard time (sleeping), I’ve always sung her to sleep,” Hanaialii said in a phone call from a tour stop in San Francisco. “So I thought I should do a CD like this for all the moms and dads out there to help their babies go to sleep.”

The album took on special significance because Hanaialii’s father, Lloyd Gilliom, died while she was working on it. She pays tribute to him with “Sleep Little Baby,” a song written for him when he was born. “A lot of old-timers know this song, but it’s never been recorded, so I was really stoked to put that on there,” said Hanaialii, who performs in a concert today at the Polynesian Cultural Center, along with Hi’ikua.

The album also contains sweetly lyrical tunes “Songbird,” “Angel’s Lullaby” and “Over the Rainbow,” as well as Hawaiian tunes that she has made famous, including “Aloha No Kalakaua” and “Palehua.” They’re all arranged simply with just piano or slack-key guitar as accompaniment, which enabled Hanaialii, a practitioner of the ha’i technique — in which the break in a vocalist’s voice is used as a means of expression — to “push the envelope” of her classical training.

“I send my voice teacher all my CDs, and he just trips out because we tried so many years trying to smooth that break over,” she said with a laugh. “And now that’s all I do.”

Where: Polynesian Cultural Center — Gateway, 55-370 Kamehameha Highway, Laie
When: 8 p.m. today; dinner package begins at 7
Cost: $15-$10 ($25 includes dinner)
Info: PCCKamaaina.com or 293-3333

– Steven Mark

SATURDAY, DEC. 8

Expect ‘glitched-out’ set from Foster the DJ

Mark Foster of Foster the People returns to Hawaii for a rare, live DJ set on Saturday. He must have enjoyed the islands: The Grammy-nominated indie-rock band made its Hawaii debut earlier this year at Aloha Tower.

Foster has an ear for what works. His “Pumped Up Kicks,” a tune about a homicidal youth, went viral online and made the group one of the hottest acts of 2011, with appearances at the Grammy show and on “Saturday Night Live.” He also seems to have a feeling for disenchanted youth: The band’s latest video, “Helena Beat,” depicts a gang of youths vanjacking him and using him to create a Frankenstein’s Monster-like creature.

Originally from Cleveland, Foster moved to L.A. to pursue a music career after high school. He told the Los Angeles Times that he rejected attempts to turn him into a “soul singer” because he preferred working on “glitched-out electronic music” — which should make his DJ set rather interesting. Listen up at the Republik late Saturday.

Earlier that night, The Republik hosts Chevy Metal, an all-about-the-good-times “dirt-rock” and metal cover band made up of Foo Fighter members Taylor Hawkins (drums, vocals) and Chris Shiflett (guitar), with Wiley Hodgden (bass, vocals), and local rockers Mantra. This all-ages (with adult) show starts at 8 p.m. (doors at 6); $25-$40; bampproject.com.

Where: The Republik, 1349 Kapiolani Blvd.
When: 10 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $20-$35
Info: groovetickets.com or 855-235-2867

Schubert sonata to be played on rare instrument

Historical music performance comes alive Saturday with a concert featuring the arpeggione, a rare instrument that dates to 1820s Europe.

Nicolas Deletaille, a Juilliard-trained cellist and scholar from Belgium, will perform a Schubert sonata that is the only major work originally composed for arpeggione. Keyboard player Alain Roudier will accompany him on fortepiano, the predecessor of the modern piano.

The arpeggione — “big arpeggio” in Italian — is a gut-strung instrument that is best described as a cross between a guitar and cello. It is tuned like a guitar and has a fretted fingerboard, but it has a curved bridge, allowing it to be bowed. About 20 original instruments still exist, mostly in museums in Europe, but instrument makers in Japan and Los Angeles have made them in modern times.

“The sound of the arpeggione is similar to Baroque cello or to a gamba (another 18th-century bowed instrument) in a way. It is less powerful in terms of volume, and in this regard it fits very well with historical fortepiano,” Deletaille said in an email from Belgium. “In term of timbre also, the Schubert sonata is very different while played on these two original instruments than when usually heard in adaptations for other instruments.”

Deletaille’s work with the arpeggione has inspired modern composers, and he has premiered dozens of new works on it, including some in which electronic instruments provide accompaniment.

“I think the guitar played with a bow has always attracted not only composers, but musicians themselves,” he said.

Where: Lutheran Church of Honolulu, 1730 Punahou St.
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $15-$20 (students free)
Info: www.PICAmusic.org or 256-4336

SUNDAY, DEC. 9

Reel Big Fish’s Hawaii performance will draw from its latest album

Longtime ska-punk band Reel Big Fish brings its cynical, sarcastic ethos and brassy, sassy grooves to the Republik this weekend. Force yourself to have a good time.

The Southern California-based band, whose 1997 hit single “Sell Out” propelled it from cult favorite to headliner status, will feature tunes from “Candy Coated Fury,” the latest album and the first new music in five years.

“It’s hateful, mean, sarcastic and sometimes sad lyrics over happy, wacky, silly, joyous, fast music that makes you want to dance,” says lead singer/guitarist Aaron Barrett, who’s known not only for his loud mouth, but for his loud aloha shirts. “This album is mostly love songs, but bitter, angry, hateful love songs. Just about everybody knows what it’s like to be in a bad relationship.”

The band’s edgy sense of irony is evident in the titles of its first two albums: “Everything Sucks” and “Turn the Radio Off.” Its sense of cynicism proved prophetic, though: The group suffers from the indignity of asking fans not to buy one of its albums, a greatest hits album that its former producer released without its consent.

“Candy Coated Fury” has received mixed reviews, but live reports praise the band for its continued manic stage presence.

Where: The Republik, 1349 Kapiolani Blvd.
When: 7 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $25-$35 ($5 more at the door)
Info: groovetickets.com or 855-235-2867