My wife is a big fan of exotica, so when we found out that Waitiki was playing in Lawrence as part of the Retro Cocktail Hour’s 500th episode she really wanted to go.  I admit that I was hesitant - while I like listening to it, I wasn’t sure that an exotica band would really translate into a live experience.  A lot of that music is pretty low key so my main concern was getting bored during the show.

Turns out I didn’t have anything to worry about.  I don’t know if this comes across on their albums, but Waitiki puts a lot of energy into their show and their music has more of a jazz influence than what I’m used to hearing.  Their setlist was a combination of covers and originals, with the highlight of the show being “L’ours  Chinois” which blended exotic sounds with classical music.

A lot of their songs had a definate Frank Zappa vibe happening with them.  The big similarity was the use of a vibraphone but also that the songs tended to go off in unexpected directions.  This is probably due to similar influences, but it’s something that I don’t pick up from other exotica recordings.

A nice touch to the show was the use of tiki decor in Liberty Hall and also the expanded drink menu.  For this occasion the bar had five different tiki drinks available.  My wife noticed that the drinks were made with high quality booze which is interesting because I would think most people wouldn’t notice of even care.

Overall a great night.  We picked up their latest CD so I’ll be spending some time with that and posting my thoughts.

Waitiki’s website has some good videos of the show.