The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series
Featuring The Green Performing “Good One”
WATCH VIDEO NOW
Video: The Green – “Good One” (The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series)
The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series: From Conception to Creation
The vision of the Pier’s “Live Acoustic Series” is to provide Regga-Rock fans with an intimate, stripped down acoustic experience featuring the genre’s most recognizable bands, along with some new faces. The concept is simple. First, get the genre’s best talent to play an acoustic version of a new or unreleased song. Second, create a production concept that is visually appealing and recognizable. Third, record the band’s performing the song. While the concept is simple, the execution is much more difficult. The Series required the coming together of a video director, crew, sound, venue, equipment, The Pier’s network, and, the bands—all with a common vision. Ultimately, this concept aims to produce quality music videos that are unmatched by any other outlet dedicated to covering reggae-rock.
The first video in the series debuted on Nov. 12, 2012 with Cas Haley performing an unreleased song at the time with “Crazy Good Woman”. Then, on July 9th, 2013, we debuted the 2nd installment with Dirty Heads performing their acoustic rendering of “Cabin By The Sea”. Now on November 5th 2013, the 3rd video will feature The Green performing their new song “Good One”
Next Up: The Green
The Pier couldn’t be happier to feature Hawaii’s The Green as the Series’ third featured band. They performed a stripped down acoustic 
version of their new song, “Good One”, off their latest album Hawai’i 13 that was released via Easy Star Records. The Green has a rapidly growing presence within the genre, spreading that island Aloha over their last 3 albums and non-stop nationwide touring. The Green is dishing out some of the best quality reggae music today & we couldn’t be more fortunate with the opportunity to film an exclusive acoustic performance during their fall 2012 tour.
The Green is the six piece roots reggae-R&B-soul band who quickly found momentum with the release of their first album—2010’s “The Green.” Since then, the group has released 2 more albums, including their August 2013 release of Hawai’i 13. The group is musically diverse, boasting 3-4 part vocal harmonies over soulful island Reggae & R&B music. The Green was at the top of our list to shoot for this video Series and thanks to the awesome crew at Rootfire, our wish became reality and the reality is we have an amazing acoustic video of The Green performing new song, “Good One”.
Back-story: The Shoot
One of the best experiences I’ve had in the last 10 years, working in music, was on November 9th, 2012. The Green was coming to perform at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver, CO & The Pier had a unique opportunity to film the group, but there were some obstacles we had to overcome in order to make the shoot happen.
To start, there’s finding a venue to house production & we had to factor in that the band was in Aspen, CO the night before, which is about a 4-5 hour drive through the mountains in a tour bus. Since The Green was performing at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, we thought we would once again ask the generous owners of Cervantes, if earlier in the day of their show, we could set up inside their venue to film The Green performing acoustic.
The venue nicely agreed & had previously allowed us to film Cas Haley earlier that June. The owners of Cervantes couldn’t have been more nice & supportive, but while we were given access to the venue, we did have a strict time frame of 
9am – 1pm. After 1pm, the venue would be filled with staff setting up for the night’s show, so we had to clear out before they had to prepare for The Green’s headlining event that night.
So now that we had a venue, we had to pitch the idea to The Green and convince them to drive 4-5 hours after a headlining set in Aspen, CO, to be ready to film at 10-11am the next morning in Denver, CO. We’re realistic that this was a stretch to not only ask them to be at the venue by 10am, but to have the energy to perform & sing on camera. See, The Green was one of the ideal bands we had in mind to film for the Series & we thought, the worse they could say was, no. With that in mind, we reached out to their management at Rootfire and not only was the answer YES! – but they were going to perform a New & Unreleased song from their forthcoming, yet to be titled, album!
There’s no better feeling then the morning on Nov 9th, 2012, when I pulled up to the venue at 8:30am and saw The Green’s tour bus parked right outside of the venue while director Tage Plantell & sound engineer Kyle Zender unloaded gear out of their cars with the front door to the venue held open. It was at that time I let my excitement come to life as I proceeded to do the Carlton dance in the middle of the street outside the venue. The idea that we were going to film one of the most talented bands in the music scene and that there were no further obstacles as we prepared for Lights-Camera-Action!
The Shoot: “Good One”
“The theme of this song is pretty straight forward. Party style and good vibes. Little known fact: Caleb wrote this song about two of our best friends back home who this kind of thing would actually happen to often. “Richard Matsumoto” is what we call it, but you can still call it “Good One”!” – Zion Thompson (Guitarist/Vocalist)
While we were setting up for production inside the venue, guitarist/vocalist Zion Thompson, lead vocalist Caleb Keolanui, vocalist Ikaika Antone & guitarist/vocalist JP Kennedy practiced the song in a corner of the venue. They called the song “Good One” and had plans to record it for their upcoming album they were going to release sometime in 2013. They said they initially had plans to release “Good One” on their first album, but it was a song they wanted to take their time to let evolve.
The live acoustic rendering includes a 3 part harmony with Caleb Keolanui on the lead with vocals. He’s backed up on vocals by JP Kennedy & Ikaika Antone. Zion Thompson takes the lead on guitar, but doesn’t sing, while Ikaika anchors out the sound with rhythm guitar. I was really impressed by the level of professionalism & quality that came from The Green. They performed the song no less than 5 times, maximizing our time together to produce the highest quality acoustic performance of the song & nailed it!
The Green had every excuse to say no or cancel last minute. While we faced our own obstacles in making sure the director, sound engineer & venue were available, the group had obstacles of their own playing late the night before, driving through the night to perform once again in the morning on camera. Not only were we able to collectively achieve this, but The Green came to life when the lights & cameras were rolling and delivered a stellar acoustic performance. They were humble, complain-free & extremely professional. The result is a timeless treat with an acoustic rendering of their song “Good One” & I’m as excited as I am proud to share the video & it’s background with all of you! Much love & respect to The Green, Rootfire, Easy Star Records & Cervantes for allowing all of this to happen!
Director and Producer: Tage Plantell
The creative force behind the Live Acoustic Series is Denver-based Director/Producer/ Video Editor and musician Tage (pronounced Taw-Guh) Plantell. A graduate of the University of Colorado in Film Production, Plantell has been involved with film and music most of his life. He started as an eight-year-old, filming adventure movies with his brother and has since worked on everything from feature films, to commercials & corporate videos. In addition to 
working in the video/production field, Plantell is an accomplished musician and songwriter. Prior to leading his current band Dusty Radio, Plantell was a member of “On Second Thought” and toured the country with bands like Vertical Horizon, Guster, Bob Schneider, The Samples and many others.
Plantell’s unique background as a director/producer and musician, bring together experiences that allow him to create professional music videos by seamlessly blending the two arts. “I’ve been a musician most of my life as well as a film-making enthusiast, so making music videos is a logical mix of my two loves in life,” says Plantell.
As a musician Plantell has a unique perspective and understanding of music that most video directors don’t have. “Understanding things like song structure and music theory, from a musician’s point of view, really helps me shoot other musicians. I am able to predict their next moves during a shoot and gives me an acute sense of rhythm when editing in post-production,” says Plantell. Plantell’s experience on the stage, in the studio and behind the lens is sure to provide fans, and musicians alike, with a visual experience that is both unique and fitting for the Pier’s Live Acoustic Series.
WATCH THE VIDEO NOW
Video: The Green – “Good One” (The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series)
The Pier’s “Live Acoustic Series” Credits:
Director/Producer/Editor/Videographer: Tage Plantell
Assistant Producer: Kit Chalberg
Sound Engineer: Kyle Zender
Filmed On Location: Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom. Denver, CO
www.SilverHalidePictures.com
The Green Links:
The Green Website
The Green Facebook
Rootfire Website
Easy Star Records Website
Article By: Mike Patti
Video: Cas Haley – “Crazy Good Woman” (The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series Debut)
Video: The Dirty Heads – “Cabin By The Sea” (The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series 2nd Video Premiere)