Seminal Honolulu funk rockers Frog Child reunite for Honolulu shows

Seminal 1990s funk-rock band Frog Child reunites after nearly a decade for a series of Honolulu shows in the coming week, sparking reminiscence and anticipation among their fans.

There was a time in Honolulu when independent, local music began to enjoy a sort of underground limelight. Bands didn’t necessarily become famous, but they were household names among the many fans that went out to see them in large numbers at a host of alternative music venues. Venues like My Favorite Eggplant, Java Java, The Factory and, of course, Anna Bannana’s opened their doors to bands like the Tantra Monsters, Tweaked, El Toupe, and even my old band Red Session each week. All-age fans flocked to these venues as second homes and havens from the perils of post-adolescence and beyond. Among all of those bands, Frog Child may have been the most imaginative.

And while many bands from those salad days gained enough local support to launch modest national tours, only a few made the leap to relocate to the mainland to pursue more opportunities. Frog Child was one of them, choosing Seattle as their base of operations. The played all original funk-jazz-rock fusion, at a time when ska, reggae, punk and Jawaiian were the genres filling venues with bodies in a boom era that seemed to have no end in sight.

Few of those bands are still around. Creative differences, day jobs, marriage, and kids make keeping a band together difficult. But even as all of those factors led to the disbanding of Frog Child, the players remain close to this day.

And just as those personal ties remain strong between members, fans of Frog Child’s music continue to listen to their songs with the same relish now as they did back then. As with all great music, Frog Child’s shows created a shared experience between band and crowd, and that is not something discerning music fans are wont to forget.

Their return to Anna Bannana’s is long-awaited, although these are not prodigal sons of Honolulu. Guitarist Colin Reinhardt is a physicist with a family. Buck Giles works as an educator and performs often with major stars like Makana and Bill “Tappy” Tapia, and he and his wife are proud parents. BASSIST Andrew McClellan is a proud husband and a father of two, and drummer Jon Glaser continues to play drums at his adopted home in New York.

Danny Dolan, co-owner of JJ Dolan’s and longtime fixture behind the bar at Anna Bannana’s has opened his establishment to Frog Child, for a show on Saturday April 3. “They’re all old friends,” says Dolan. “We’re not really music venue, but we thought we’d give it a shot.” Old loyalties like that are bound to make each of Frog Child’s performances memorable, as long-lost friends reconnect and share stories from back-in-the-day.

Frog Child plays Anna Bannana’s on Friday March 26 and Saturday March 27 at 9:00 pm and at JJ Dolan’s Irish Pizza Pub on Saturday April 3 at 8:00pm. Visit Frog Child’s Facebook page for more information.