Big Mele flashback
Recently I was doing research on the 90s music scene in Hawai’i.
I found this guy JonHawaii2003 had posted footage of Tool and Stone Temple Pilots at the first Big Mele—an alternative music festival that ran in Hawaii for seven years—on YouTube. Turns out Jon was one of the sound guys for the show, and knows a thing or two about getting quality concert footage.
I contacted him to thank him for the hard-rocking flashback, and a week later he reuploaded the Tool footage in even better quality!
Here’s the link to the entire 10-part playlist, or if you just want to hear my favorite (aka most popular on Radio Free Hawaii) song of the day, that’d be Opiate featuring a surprise guest appearance from singer Layne Staley of Alice in Chains:
The one thing you can’t see here is the waves, they are going off(!!) in an area of the island where huge surf is not that common. Despite Kualoa being a Ranch and having an abundance of ranchly things like cow poo (and the fungus that grows upon it), I can hardly imagine a more beautiful backdrop for a killer music festival.
I wasn’t even a huge Tool fan until that day, when the bass in my face—an emotionally blown state since I’d just been dumped that day—rocked my world. Other artists that played the Big Mele were Stone Temple Pilots, Fishbone, Violent Femmes and Primus.
No subsequent Big Mele ever packed as much of a punch as this one did, for me. They lost even the little bit of diversity they had, becoming way too alterna-punk-heavy for my tastes, tho I did go in ’96 (No Doubt! plus Cypress Hill and their ginormous inflatable Buddha) and ’97 (Wu Tang, sorry guys, that is *not* Wu Mountain behind us). Lineups of all The Big Mele festivals on hawaiibase.com.
10/06/2009 at 7:57 pm Permalink
This also my favorite Tool song, very good footage. The big Mele relflected what was happening to Radio Free as well, too much punk and a tendency to play weird and alternative songs for the sake of being weird and alternative…maybe if the Dave Grohl and the boys play Kualoa it can be Foo Mountain.
12/07/2009 at 4:57 pm Permalink
WOW ! ! So glad someone has a clip from this show. Really miss Radio Free Hawaii. This was one of the best shows I have ever been to.
18/09/2009 at 11:58 pm Permalink
Im a bartender and when people ask about the best concert/show ive ever been to, always have been the first mele. youre not going to find too many venues of that magnetude without all the corp B.S.
19/02/2010 at 5:14 pm Permalink
I absolutely agree with T. The Big Mele was hands-down the best concert I’ve ever been to. Surf, mountains, sun, and a massive, muddy mosh pit fueled by some of the best music of the time! It was definitely one of the highlights of my years stationed in Hawaii.
05/06/2010 at 6:09 pm Permalink
That tune is incredible! I love it!
04/07/2010 at 7:13 pm Permalink
OMFG!!! THANK you SO much for posting this!!! Great memories!!