Jannus Live dispensed a heavy dose of musical mayhem onto to Bay area music fans this past Friday night when Hawaiian-rock doctors Pepper [pictured below] stopped by to deliver a prescription of guitar thrashing, drum crashing, and general big island vibes with their “Like a Surgeon Tour.” [Photos by Mike Wilson.]

As I approached the courtyard concert house, I found myself faced with a line stretching down Second Street, wrapping down around First Avenue past Joey Brooklyn’s Pizza and Tangelo’s. The door staff were throwing around tickets and hot pink wristbands, trying to handle the entry chaos and I realized it was one of the busiest nights I've experienced at the newly-renovated venue.

Once the boyfriend and I were cleared for entry, we grabbed beverages from the balcony bar and made our way down into the sea of beer-chugging, flip flop-wearing denizen who were swaying to the thumping, laid-back hip-hop of Shwayze.

Clad in tees and tight jeans, the two Malibu MCs — Aaron Smith and Cisco Adler – energized the crowd with their urban hipsterness, squeezing out their beach street rhymes about lazy days and gettin' down with girls at a block party by the bar. The duo busted out an hour-long set of tunes off their freshman and sophomore releases that included “Buzzin’,” “Livin’ It Up,” “Roamin’,” “Get You Home,” “Polaroid,” and “Corona and Lime.”

This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2010.