On a Saturday night in the Oahu suburb of Hawaii Kai, dozens of well-dressed 20- and 30-somethings stride across a shopping center parking lot toward a silver door opening to a multimillion-dollar waterfront recording studio, where music aficionados are gathering for a pop-up concert hosted by Sofar Sounds.
“This has been one of my dream gigs,” says Payton Sullivan, one of the four acts performing that night. “It was the starting point for so many artists I look up to.” Sullivan is nervous, she admits to the audience of about 120, most of whom are sitting on pillows strewn across the floor. “When I sing there usually aren’t that many people sitting looking.” Then she launches into a rendition of the Jackson Five’s “Who’s Lovin’ You.”
Sofar Sounds hosts live music performances in unexpected locations around the world; concerts in Honolulu have taken place in living rooms, yoga studios, even on a boat. But the venues are perhaps the least surprising thing about these shows: Attendees buy tickets without knowing the location, the artist or even the genre of music—those aren’t revealed until the days leading up to the performance—and the music you might hear at a Sofar Sounds event is as diverse as the venues.
Singer Jordan Paul and guitarist Cory Mira, who are also performing at the Hawaii Kai show, play nightly in bars and restaurants on Kauai—crowd-pleasing covers, mostly. But at the Hawaii Kai show they perform their effortless R&B originals. “This is really important,” Mira says, “especially for up-and-coming Hawaii artists, because it allows the real artistry to come out.”
“The music in these Islands is so diverse, and travelers and even locals don’t often get a chance to hear it,” says Michelle Anderson, who produces Sofar’s Hawaiʻi shows. “These experiences allow for that to happen.” Local music lovers and musicians alike face a dearth of options for intimate venues, but that’s changing as Sofar gains traction and expands to neighbor islands. Since launching Hawaii Sofar Sounds in 2019, Anderson has produced fifty-three shows across the Islands, featuring local talent like Nick Kurosawa, IZIK, Hawane Rios, Rabbitt and the Artis family, including Thunderstorm Artis. Anderson tries to match the artist to the venue, typically asking the hosts their preference. “A lot of times it’s just me blending people where I think, ‘Wow, this bridge needs to be built,’ and all these friendships blossom,” she says. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
sofarsounds.com/cities/honolulu
