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A week ago today, I was in Los Angeles, roaming around in “the world’s largest independent record store,” Amoeba Music, sifting through vintage rock posters, walking among aisles of CDs and vinyl records… and brushing shoulders with director Michel Gondry.

Oh right, ’twas Hollywood.

Vasthy, Liz, Christina and I had just come from eating dinner at Hard Rock Cafe on Universal City Walk. At Amoeba, we were all exhausted but willed ourselves to get lost in the music – literally. I mean, it’s why we were all here. (And Michel Gondry? Turns out he was there for a performance at Amoeba. He plays the drums.)

Franz Ferdinand would be performing the following day at the Hollywood Palladium. This would make it my second time seeing the Scottish band live; my first Franz gig was only about five months ago in Tempe, Arizona. That experience remains as among the best and luckiest I’ve ever had: we scored killer barrier positions right up front, chatted with the band (with frontman Alex Kapranos and bass player Bob Hardy, twice), and made a bunch of new friends — especially the coincidental meeting with Tracy, the other Hawai‘i girl who was there. It was definitely a surprise to find out we had both come from the same island – heck, the same side of the island — to see the same band. How did we not know of each other earlier?

This time around, Tracy couldn’t join us, and neither could Aurora and Cris, two good friends I had made in Tempe and on the online forum for my other favorite band, Muse. I missed them and wished they could have joined us. There were others I’d be meeting up with, though, mostly from the Muse boards, including Lisa and Christina, two Musers I’d also met in Tempe.

The next day, around 10am, Christina and I arrived in line to find about 10 or 15 others already queued. The group at the front of the line were part of our Muser group — Caroline, who was numero uno, had been sitting there in her lawn chair since 4:45 am. She was with her sister, Jackie; a friend of Jackie’s; and Liz, another Muser. B, as we call her, also joined us. Ashley, also from the Muse forum, was in line earlier, but had taken off. Turned out she got in to a small radio-hosted acoustic performance with Alex and Nick McCarthy, the band’s other guitarist and keyboardist.

The front of the line.

For about nine hours, we took turns sitting in lawn chairs, underneath umbrellas, guzzling water, waiting for the doors to open at 7pm. The sun was a scorcher. On occasion, someone would cross the street to the Coffee Bean to fetch cups of ice cubes, or to the nearby Rite-Aid or Denny’s for chilly snacks and beverages. (At one point, Christina handed out extra popsicles to fellow fans in line.) We listened to music from my iPhone that was blasting out of Liz’s portable speakers, chatted with other people in line, and made signs to hold up during the show. Around 3pm, the building across the street with the Coffee Bean cast its long shadow over us, finally relieving us of the sun’s heat.

As the time to enter the venue got closer, a verbal ruckus formed at the front of the line. At this point, about ten people had trickled in and cut in the middle of our group. Christina got frustrated and spoke up. Two or three friends being let in front of us – okay. Ten? No way. A girl said she was in line at 7am, then left to go to work, where she had just come from. Of course, this didn’t make things fair for those who waited all day in the sun. Someone behind us used the perfect analogy, calling it “touching bases.” After security got involved and gave her the ultimatum of moving to the back of the line or receiving a ticket refund, she and most of her friends huffily made their way to the back of the line.

Finally, the time to enter the Palladium was coming close. Erin, her sister, and Lisa had all arrived from San Diego. Lisa’s friend, who she calls “Hobo,” had also arrived. Females made two security check lines and males formed one. I made my way into the venue after the security officer checked my large purse, which contained my copy of Alex’s book, Sound Bites; my camera; iPhone; and the origami star lei and greeting card Tracy and I made for the band.

The lei.

We scored barrier positions again, though our group was separated. In Tempe, I was in front of Nick. The coveted barrier spot for fans is usually between Nick and Alex. This time, I was on the other side, in front of Bob, along with Liz and B. The others had made their way to Nick’s side.

After two opening acts — local bands Neverever and The Blood Arm — we were ready for Franz Ferdinand. A skinny, flamboyant guy who had introduced The Blood Arm earlier came back onstage to introduce the headliner. Hilariously, he deemed Franz Ferdinand “the most evil band in the history of Scotland,” more evil than Satan; whereas earlier, he called The Blood Arm’s sound better than Jesus himself. (Uh yeah, talk about some high standards!) With that introduction, Franz Ferdinand came onstage and opened with “Bite Hard,” a slow starter with a punchy ending. One of my favorite songs, “The Dark of the Matinée,” was next, followed by “No You Girls.”

Everyone in our group got their signs out. Christina had the brilliant idea of each of us holding up individual signs that all read “Van Tango,” a b-side that has become a live rarity. (Wanting some Hawai‘i flavor to my sign, mine read, “Van Tango Mango,” while Lisa’s read, “Van Tango Dammit,” also my idea.) The plan was to hold up our signs during “No You Girls,” which always happens early on in the show, and they would play our request soon after. It worked. At least at that point, we thought it did. When Christina got a setlist later, “Van Tango” was already on there… right after “No You Girls.” Huh. Talk about coincidences. At least Nick was nice enough to dedicate it to our group.

I’d like to think Alex was trying to read my sign in this shot. At that point, I was the only one on the barrier holding a sign. It said, “You survived Green Day – now come to Hawai‘i”

“This Fire” came after “Van Tango.” It’s so weird how that song is now early in the setlist because for a long time, it was the very last song played in shows. Plus, when Franz first came to town a couple days before, the wildfires had started that same day. “This fire is out of control / We’re gonna burn this city, burn this city.” It’s all Franz Ferdinand’s fault! (Just kidding, guys.)

Not gonna do an entire play-by-play of the setlist… because I have a photo of Christina’s setlist!

For most of the show, I sang along to the words and bobbed my head to the beat. Along with b-side “Van Tango,” I was surprised they played “Darts of Pleasure,” their very first single that these days has also become a live rarity (we requested they play “Darts” via signage in Tempe); and “Auf Achse,” a deep cut from their debut album and one of the first Franz songs I remember liking.

One thing I did notice a few times during the show was Alex making a motion with his pointer finger across his neck — looked like he was telling someone off stage to stop something. What this something was, I had no clue. I didn’t hear any technical problems.

Here’s a favorite that’s become a Franz ritual: the drum circle at the end of “Outsiders”:

They ended the set with “Lucid Dreams.” That song alone was worth the trip there. In Tempe, the band had played up until the electronic outro was supposed to start, but some sort of technical glitch happened that (I’m guessing) prevented the sampler from triggering. So in Tempe, that epic dance outro was aborted. But this time… musical bliss. Fifteen minutes of it. Of course, I wasn’t gonna spend the entire time filming it — I had to relish it and dance along — but here are a couple of snippets of it (the second video is part of the electronic outro):

For the curious, here’s “Lucid Dreams” in full, from the iTunes festival in London, July 2009:

The downside to them ending with “Lucid Dreams” was that the band didn’t take a final bow; each band member left the stage, eventually leaving Paul Thomson banging on his drums at the end. After the concert ended on that note, we made our way out of the venue. Before leaving the GA floor, a girl who turned out to be Stephanie from the FFG flagged me down; she had recognized me from some photos taken in Tempe. We all made our way to the side of the venue, where about 40 other fans were waiting for a chance to meet the band. While we waited, Stephanie and I chatted for a bit. Turned out she was staying at the same hotel we were — a shame we didn’t know sooner! During the 90 minutes we spent waiting and talking with friends and other fans, people gradually dispersed. It was pretty clear they were not coming out to meet fans. Our group of friends gave up at 1 am and made our way back to the hotel. It was a bummer I couldn’t present each band member their lei and give them the card Tracy and I made, but I just think it was meant to happen at another time, preferably with Tracy, Aurora, and Cris there.

All in all, it was a fun experience. It certainly will not live up to Tempe — for me, the Tempe experience is difficult to top — but the crowd was pumped up, Franz Ferdinand delivered a strong performance, and we got lost in the music.

We drove through horrendous Baclaran traffic – impeccable timing with post-church and open market crowds. I spent the time looking around at the traffic, the crowd, and the palengke stalls from within the confines of Uncle Jess’s jeepney. To our left, a few beggars were lined up alongside the road; one of them in turn was lining up plastic figurines. A couple others were kneeling on the stumps of their knees; they were legless. To our right was a row of stalls, where swap meet-ish clothes, sparkly Converse knockoffs, and ice cream, among other things, were being displayed and sold. And all among us was an unrelenting crowd of people on foot, passing around and between the cars stuck in traffic. It was almost like the apocalypse had hit, except no one was in panic. Lining the street we were on were drug stores, local eateries, and a few familiar names: McDonald’s… Dunkin’ Donuts… and 7-Eleven. Somehow I can never avoid 7-Eleven. I mean, I work right across the street from one and get my lunch there all the time. But it was an interesting contrast seeing those American establishments among the hustle and bustle of an impoverished Filipino community.

While I was making these observations in traffic, my mom exited the jeepney and entered the drug store we were “parked” in front of. Traffic was moving at a snail’s pace, so the jeepney hadn’t moved very far by the time she came back. She emerged with some newly exchanged pesos and a tube of Colgate gel toothpaste to replace the one that got confiscated at Honolulu International. (Apparently my mom didn’t hear me when I said I wanted her to put it in the checked luggage, because she had the toothpaste in her carry-on. And we’re talking about a standard-sized toothpaste tube.)

This sounds horrible, but by the time we got to the vicinity of our hotel, we stopped at… a McDonald’s. Yeah. The awesome thing about McDonald’s in the Philippines is that they serve two food items they don’t serve in any American McDonald’s that I’ve been to: fried chicken and spaghetti. It’s insane how fried chicken and spaghetti seems to be so popular here; it seems as though every fast food place serves them. The special thing about Filipino spaghetti is its sauce: sweeter than your typical meat sauce, and there are little slices of hot dog in it. So of course, I had to order the one-piece fried chicken and spaghetti combo. My mom was boring and got a Filet-O-Fish meal she ended up giving to her aunt and uncle, even though she also ordered each of them two-piece chicken combos. After some debate about which motel/hotel/apartelle we would stay at, we settled on the one we are currently staying at, on West Avenue in Quezon City. It was a half-hour wait until we got a room, which ended up being on the fifth floor. Though it’s a pretty inexpensive hotel, the lobby is really clean and classy, with a Japanese theme going on. The room too, aside from some dust that hasn’t been cleaned off above the headboard. Soon this hotel will have a sixth floor; this is apparent with the constant hammering that’s been going on somewhere above us. It’s fine though because it seems to stop by bedtime – at least it did just now and last night).

I woke up at 6 am today, unusually early for me as of late, but I still felt well rested. I checked my usual Web sites and did some work-related stuff on my laptop – this place has free wi-fi – and turned on the TV. I discovered this MTV-ish channel (but better because they actually play a lot of music videos) called “Channel V,” which is apparently based out of Australia, though most of the announcers sound American. I flipped back and forth between Channel V and MTV. A Lady GaGa song came on on MTV, and I felt some “spidey senses” (which turned out to be “Franzy senses,” apparently) tingle. I switched back to Channel V and a few seconds after I did so, the video for Franz Ferdinand’s “The Dark of the Matinée” started playing, followed by “No You Girls”. That was a nice way to start the day.

My mom and I spent most of today exploring the nearby SM North Edsa mall—the largest mall in Asia. When we got there, we ate a hot dog and fruit smoothie breakfast at the only place that was open at 9 am, the SM Hypermarket. (I guess bigger than a supermarket? But not really.) The mall opened at 10 am, so after some minor grocery shopping at the “Hypermarket,” we took the escalator up to the rest of the mall. We took pictures at the center court the escalators dropped us off at, with a player piano in the middle of it. We bought a couple of tote bags and walked around the mall for five hours, stopping to eat at Chowking and a few kiosk vendors along the way. During those five hours, I failed to find both a music store (though I found several musical instrument shops) and the bowling alley (though I did discover the big Fun Factory-ish arcade on the third level). We did, however, accomplish getting our plane tickets to Iloilo, where we’ll be going next week, and getting my watch battery replaced.

When we came back to our hotel room, I turned on the main power switch for our room, which turns on everything, including the TV. And what was playing on Channel V to greet us back? Muse. “Sing for Absolution”. Channel V, coupled with my Franzy/Muse senses, is a winner in my book. My mom and I ordered some fried chicken, chop suey, and rice and ate it in our room, while watching Channel V and Oprah. It’s been an embarrassingly Western day.

And my friend Aurora finished her blog entry – nay, novel – on our Tempe experience, which is posted on her Myspace blog. So if you want all the nitty gritty details – way more detailed than the one I posted – read it!

This has officially been the best weekend of my life. I flew in from Hawaii to Phoenix to see Franz Ferdinand live—and it has been more than worth it!

Pre-Gig
I flew in early that Friday morning. Later that day, I got to meet fellow Franz fans I’ve gotten to know through the official message board for Muse, my other favorite band. (Franz Ferdinand by far has the longest thread in the “Other Bands” section on the forum.) These friends were all from out of town: San Diego, Los Angeles, and El Paso. Only one of us in the group lives in the area, though she originally hails from the Netherlands. We went out to Mill Avenue Friday evening and had dinner, drinks, and basically amped ourselves up for the concert the following day.

Late Saturday morning, two of my friends and I made our way to the Marquee Theatre. We would’ve left for the venue earlier, but we knew there was a charity run and that routes to the venue were blocked until 10:30 am. When we pulled up to the venue, we spotted their tour bus parked behind the venue and got a bit giddy. We were relieved to find that we were the first ones there. We sat on a curb in the shade to see if anyone from the band would come out. Sure enough, we spotted Bob walking back and forth between the bus and the back of the venue. He eventually saw us and made his way toward us. We bought the band a bottle of tequila the day before, so we presented it to him. He was sincerely thankful for the gift and said Paul would especially be appreciative of it. After talking about Coachella, his new shoes, and some photos, Bob made his way back to the bus.

Me and Bob Hardy, Franz Ferdinand's bassist.

About ten minutes later, while we were preparing to write some messages to the band on our friend’s SUV (the one featured at the beginning of the Phoenix Kyte video), out emerged Alex Kapranos himself. He literally made a beeline towards us. We introduced ourselves and chatted about Paul McCartney and Morrissey, mostly about the strange things Morrissey was saying onstage about burning flesh and how he hoped it was human. We figured Morrissey needed some water and a cookie. Alex suggested he needed a veggie burger.

Alex also told us how Nick injured his foot and that he was in the hospital getting some x-rays done. Our Dutch friend with the SUV told him what we were going to write on it in German— “We came here to see Franz Ferdinand” — and Alex was able to translate it to English, thanks to his being around Nick all the time. He also asked us where we were from and he repeated it back to us: “So you’re from Texas, you’re from Holland, you’re from Hawaii… and I’m from Glasgow!” Very cute.

Alex even helped us take a group photo with him, suggesting we set a camera down on the hood of one of the few cars in the lot. We also took individual photos. When it was my turn, I did something I’ve been dreaming about doing when I ever met Alex—I taught him how to make a shaka sign with his hand. (It’s a Hawaii greeting. Look on YouTube for President Obama’s shaka during his inauguration parade.) We also had him give Bob a toy officer’s badge we bought for him (“Arizona Sheriff Bob”).

Me, Alex, Christina, and Aurora. Photo from Aurora's camera.

Me and Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand vocalist and guitarist.

After he left, we wrote the German message and “Get Well Nick” on our friend’s SUV.

"We came here to see Franz Ferdinand" in German

Our superfantastisch message to Nick.

The rest of our group arrived and we told them about our encounter with Bob and Alex. They were a bit jealous to say the least. We set up our little line party in front of the venue, with bum cushions, picnic food, water and a portable fan. We made a few signs on neon poster board. Three girls one of our friends knew from the franzferdinand.org days arrived a few hours before the doors opened; they just came from driving from Coachella. It turned out one of them was also from Hawaii—30 minutes away from where I live!

Showtime
The gig itself was easily the best I have ever been to. Our group scored barrier positions as we hoped, and were subject to Alex and Nick’s “eye sex.” One notable occurrence was that they played “Darts of Pleasure”—a rare instance in recent Franz gigs—instead of “The Fallen” because my friend held up the sign I wrote requesting it! It was cute how they apologized how they played the song afterward, but I didn’t even notice anything wrong… we were all excited to hear the song live! Nick saw my “Aloha Franzypants” sign and chuckled. He also dedicated “Tell Her Tonight” to our friend with the SUV. I was a bit bummed that they messed up/omitted the electronic outro to “Lucid Dreams” during the encore, but that was minor in relation to everything else that happened that day. I bounced up and down to a few songs, so I was surprised that my legs weren’t hurting after the show.

Alex's eyes boring his way through me.

Nick strikes a pose.

Ethereal Alex Kapranos.

The set list from the gig. Note that "The Fallen" was replaced by "Darts of Pleasure" upon our request!

Most of our group, most of whom I know from the Muse online forum.

Post-Gig
We waited outside near their van in hopes of meeting them (again), especially because most of our group wasn’t there with us that morning. The security guards told us that the band wasn’t coming out, and basically everyone else aside from our group left. The band eventually came out and graciously took photos and signed autographs for us. I got a few pictures with Nick as he told us how he hurt his foot in Seattle.

Photo by Christina.

Photo by Christina.

Photo by Christina.

I suggested they come to Hawaii sometime and Nick said he would love for the band to go there someday. After a while, the guys really had to go. Our group dispersed into smaller groups as we figured out where to go to eat afterward—we settled with Whataburger—and got each other’s contact info. I caught Alex looking at us as we were doing this. I wonder if he was wondering how we all knew each other. Perhaps he was amazed at our dedication and willingness to go through great lengths to see them.

Franz Ferdinand put on an amazing show and were very gracious about meeting with us, their fans, before and after the show. Thanks to them, I have made a bunch of new friends and experienced a weekend I will never forget. Mahalo, Franz Ferdinand!

After receiving a text message from Aurora with their room number, I walked downstairs to hang out in their hotel room, a.k.a. Franz HQ. The first thing I saw was a mass of blankets. I soon realized it was a small portable gazebo covered in sheets—the “fort” Christina and Aurora talked about building in the Franz Ferdinand thread in the Muse boards. Sure enough, as I entered the room and walked around to the right of the fort, I spotted its entrance.

That's "Lucky lucky yeah!" in German

Hanging from the top, inside the tent, was a small disco ball that you could shine a flashlight on. We talked about people potentially being able to see the disco ball-lit gazebo from outside the hotel room. It only meant fun!

When Cris and Lisa and her friends arrived, we hired a cab to take us to the nearby Mill Avenue district. We had a Mexican dinner at Macayo’s, where performers were singing lame acoustic covers. At one point, we launched into singing mode, with Muse and Franz songs, of course. It was pretty obnoxious but way more entertaining than the restaurant’s “entertainment.” Ha.

Afterward, we walked along Mill Avenue. Lisa really wanted to go to Fat Tuesday so we went there. The atmosphere reminded me of Waikiki on a weekend night. Loud music, college-aged kids, a few of them dancing. We found a seating area on the sidewalk and took over a corner area. We proceeded a picture-taking spree—it didn’t matter whether they were good photos, just that they were candid and random. We talked to a couple of guys who were ASU students and told them about our upcoming Franzy adventure. Neither seemed very familiar with Franz Ferdinand, though one of them very obviously pretended that Franz “was his shit.” Uh huh. We suggested they check them out the following evening but of course they made excuses about not knowing what their friends were up to that night. We had Mr. “Franz is My Shit” go check with the DJ if they had any Muse or Franz songs on deck. He came back with a no. Of course. Shortly afterward, we left. Lisa later apologized for bringing us there.

Back at Franz HQ, we hung out and blasted and sang along with—yup, you guessed it—more Muse and Franz songs. We also learned the choreography during the chorus of the “Dark of the Matinée” video, so we could perform it during the concert the following evening.

Saturday, April 18 (late morning/early afternoon): Lucky lucky
After a quick stop to the nearby Safeway for some snacks and ice for our line party cooler, Christina, Aurora and I arrived at the venue at around 11:30 am. We were planning to arrive earlier to ensure we were first in line, but road blocks from a charity run this morning prevented it. It didn’t matter though because we were still the first ones there. And perhaps this arrival time was meant to be because not too long after we got to the venue, we met Bob Hardy (bass) and Alex Kapranos (lead vocals and guitar)!!!!

So here’s how this happened. We noticed the tour bus parked behind the venue, so we nonchalantly sat by a parking lot median, underneath the shade of a small tree. It was the only spot that had decent shade anyway. It was near the buses but not too close that it made us look suspicious.

We waited in the shade for a few minutes and caught a glance of Bob walking from the bus. After a few moments he emerged and stood by the neighboring curb. I waved and he jutted out his chin in casual greeting. Christina said “hi” as Bob walked over. Aurora and Christina had me present the bottle of tequila they had purchased for the guys, since they were afraid they would drop the bottle out of nervousness. He was really appreciative of the gift and said Paul would especially appreciate the gesture. Bob also said they’ll drink it after the gig… not such a good idea to indulge beforehand. Then we talked a little bit about Coachella the day before. Aurora asked if the shoes he was wearing were the new ones he mentioned in the official blog and he said they were indeed. We took photos with Bob, and we both made sure not to trip over the tequila bottle we set down on the asphalt. We thanked Bob for coming to talk to us and he departed with the tequila bottle.

Me and Bob Hardy, Franz Ferdinand's bassist.

A few minutes later, Alex emerged and made a beeline towards us! He asked us if we were the girls who gave them the tequila. We said yes and he thanked us. We were amused that he introduced himself, even though we knew who he was, but appreciated his manners! He talked about Paul McCartney and said something like, “Who isn’t a Beatles fan?” Then he talked about a strange comment that Morrissey made on stage about how he could smell burning flesh (hamburger meat is what Alex thinks Morrissey was talking about) and how he hoped it was human flesh. (Morrissey is vegan.) I commented that it sounded like he needed a cookie and some water, and Alex suggested maybe he needed a veggie burger.

Christina told Alex what she was going to write on the back of her SUV with glass chalk: she said, “We came here to see Franz Ferdinand” in German and Alex was able to translate it to English. A consequence of being around Nick, he said. Speaking of Nick, Alex told us he was getting his x-rays done at a nearby hospital, so he wasn’t at the venue yet.

Afterward Alex asked where we were from. He repeated it back to us: “You’re from Texas, you’re from Holland, you’re from Hawaii, and I’m from Glasgow.” The “I’m from Glasgow” line we found amusing because it was something we already knew, but it’s something Alex likes to say. (We proceeded to use it as a running one-liner joke throughout the rest of the weekend.) He graciously signed some items we had with us: Aurora’s copy of Sound Bites, my Franz Ferdinand CD sleeve, and Christina’s dollar bill. We wanted to take a group photo but we were the only ones in the parking lot. Alex suggested we put one of our cameras on timer mode and place it on one of the few cars in the lot. He genuinely got excited that the idea would work.

Me, Alex, Christina, and Aurora. Photo from Aurora's camera.

We took individual photos with Alex. For my photo, I taught Alex how to do a shaka sign—something I was planning on doing in the event I ever met him! Again, Alex seemed to take genuine interest, as he was learning something new!

Me and Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand vocalist and guitarist.

After our photos, we each hugged Alex and thanked him. He’s tall and I’m quite petite so I had to tiptoe to hug him!

After he returned to the bus, Aurora noted that Alex’s lips were stained purple with wine. Someone’s been drinking wine in the afternoon! (Doo doo doo doo-oooh-oooh!) We also noted that Bob and Alex both complimented Christina’s Bavarian hat.

A little later, we witnessed Alex, Bob and Paul board a white van, presumably to get lunch, visit Nick at the hospital and/or go back to their hotel. On its way out of the parking lot, it passed behind Christina’s SUV, where the girls already wrote their German message. Aurora waved and through the tinted windows, she saw the guys waved back. She was ecstatic.

Part Two coming later

In Sound Bites, the author, Franz Ferdinand lead singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos, details his adventures with food while on tour. I like how he starts off with his earliest memory involving food—sampling different food at his family’s housewarming party, then trying a peanut and learning he is acutely allergic to them, causing his stomach to churn, his drool to uncontrollably rush out of his mouth, and his vomit reflexes to kick into play. But I really liked his last thought in his introduction:

I think about the food—its flavours and how it felt in my mouth, how different each thing was, how it could taste of joy, revulsion or painful destruction. I don’t think of it as a thing that stops me from being hungry. I know it is much more than that. Food is an adventure.

After reading a few more pages into the book—particularly when Kapranos mentions his hapa-Greek background and how he went to a Greek festival with his family—I realized that I hadn’t had Greek food in a while… it had been at least a year. I really missed gyros and hummus, and I wanted to try some new things, as well.

It was time for an adventure with Greek food.

The original plan before last night’s reading session was that I would spend the day at home, finally watching Burn After Reading and having tea and snacks with Yvonne. But our plans changed as the yearning for some Greek food set in. Yvonne mentioned that she had Greek food—spanakopita, to be exact—only one other time. So it was a plan.

The “closest” Greek restaurant was Leo’s Taverna on Bishop Street. I say “closest” because it’s an hour-long bus ride away. But I love Leo’s—I went there regularly when I was going to school at HPU and working in town. So yes, we got on the Country Express to begin our journey. The bus ride didn’t seem long at all, considering Yvonne and I always found things to talk about. Plus, at this point, I’m used to it.

We got off the bus at South King and Bethel and walked to Leo’s. On our way, we got sidetracked because of the open-air market that I forgot happens on Fridays (and Tuesdays) on Fort Street Mall. We stopped by Honolulu Soap Company’s booth. After some pondering and discussion about the benefits of using natural soap and oil, we each bought some jojoba and kukui nut oil, and a couple of bars of natural glycerin soap. Perfect timing, considering Yvonne’s taken up an interest in natural soap and solid shampoo (as opposed to liquid shampoo, which often contain harsh chemicals and come in wasteful plastic bottles).

Afterward, we walked to Leo’s. The very first thing I noticed when we got in there was how awfully quiet it was in there. Every time I’ve walked in there before, there would be a line at the register and nearly every table taken. Then I realized it was 2 pm; we’d come post-lunch hour in Honolulu’s financial district.

Yvonne ordered the spanakopita and vegetarian combos. The vegetarian combo comes with hummus, baba ghannouj, and grape leaves. The menu said it also came with tabouleh, but it looked like Yvonne got three-bean salad instead, which was no problem.

I ordered my beloved gyros plate, which comes with hummus, salad, tzatziki sauce, and pita bread. I couldn’t resist ordering a side of garlic fries as well. (I know, it’s very Greek.)

As we waited for our order, I noticed a couple seated against the room’s southern wall, waiting on their order. They looked a little disheveled and a bit annoyed. The male customer quietly inquired about the status of their order, to which the large Greek man I’ve always presumed to be Leo responded in his typically not-so-quiet manner, then the customer sat back down. When the couple’s order was called up, the man pointed at his table, gesturing that he wanted it delivered to their table. He was most likely a n00b who didn’t know that at Leo’s, you pick up your order at the counter. Leo or someone must have waved for him to do so, so the man came to get his food.

When our food arrived and we started eating, someone realized that something was missing in the eatery’s ambiance and started playing some Greek music. It’s funny how much music can add to the atmosphere and the whole experience. It solidifies the restaurant’s identity with a culture. Tune into a generic radio station and the eatery becomes just another place to have food.

Back to the food: it was phenomenal as I expected. I welcomed the tastes of tender lamb meat, light and refreshing tzatziki sauce, and creamy hummus back into my life once more! (Sorry if that was cheesy.) And the garlic fries, though not as great as I remember them being, were still mighty crunchy and tasty. I sampled Yvonne’s spanakopita, which was flaky on the outside with a soft spinach filling, and I think I’ll get that combo the next time I find myself in that part of town.

I really wish the Greek offerings on this island weren’t so concentrated in Honolulu. At least one in Kapolei, please!

And big ups to Alex Kapranos for the inspiration! Opa!