By Jason Genegabus

Busta Rhymes, right, and Spliff Star address the crowd at LEVEL4 Nightclub on Friday. (Jason Genegabus photos)

Of the four big nights of parties (Thursday through Sunday) planned around the Pro Bowl last weekend, Friday brought the hardest choices for Honolulu’s club crowd.

Pipeline Cafe went after old school fans with EPMD and a return performance by Devin the Dude, while Lotus Soundbar appealed to the EDM scene with DJ Quentin Harris. Rumors also circulated about Kanye West making a trip here to support G.O.O.D. Music artist (and cousin) Tony Williams’ album release party at RumFire (he ended up being a no-show).

I placed my bet on LEVEL4 Nightclub and Ultralounge, which was scheduled to feature performances by Busta Rhymes, Kurupt and DJ Quik, and headed down around 11 p.m. to figure out where I could take pictures from during the night.

Lucky for me, there were no problems getting into the club and I was able to post up in the upsatirs balcony as the dancefloor filled up below.

More pictures from my night after the jump.

Despite the shutdown of Waikiki Nei at the Royal Hawaiian Center a few months ago, the nighclub operation at the venue appears to be holding its own despite the slumping economy. Fridays are the busiest night, thanks to the efforts of promoters who host “The Peach” every week.

One of the first suggestions I made to management here was to introduce live performances as an additional entertainment option when Waikiki Nei wasn’t using the stage. The shutdown, while not good for those who lost their jobs in the process, did help open the room to musical acts.

It’s a good fit, in my opinion. There’s enough space fronting the stage for a few hundred people, plus more seats are available in the balcony for people who don’t want to stand shoulder-to-shoulder.

The lighting is also pretty darn good here, thanks to money invested in equipment originally designed for the Waikiki Nei production.

Another holdover here are the dancers who perform about 20 feet over the heads of clubgoers during the evening:

It’s pretty cool to watch. People on the dancefloor would actually stop and stare as they did their thing:

At one point, I used my on-camera flash for a few shots. This was the result:

The live performances were supposed to start around midnight, so I settled in with my equipment and watched the balcony fill up around me. Hot 93.9’s Big Koa was on the microphone, but somehow got replaced by Rick Rock (who was supposed to be at his own party at Senor Frog’s that night) before the show got started.

Around 1 a.m., Kurupt and DJ Quik made their entrance, and the LEVEL4 crowd went nuts:

Quik has been here before, but I can’t remember the last time I saw Kurupt perform in Hawaii (if at all). He seemed to be impressed by the crowd’s ability to rap his rhymes back to him:

Quik, on the other hand, was as cool as a tall glass of lemonade on a hot day, backing Kurupt on the mic and offering him shots of Hennessy a number of times throughout their set.

If you haven’t heard, these two guys plan to release a new album, “Blaqkout,” later this year. They introduced a few new tracks to the audience on Friday, while also performing a number of their greatest hits.

By now, the dancefloor was packed shoulder-to-shoulder in anticipation of the Flipmode Squad leader’s arrival.

Friday’s concert was the first time Busta Rhymes has ever performed in Hawaii, and he came out looking like he was on a mission to show he could still rock a crowd:

Any true Busta Bus’ fan knows that wherever he goes, Spliff Star is sure to follow:

Despite Busta’s slightly annoying habit of cutting off nearly every song, he tore through his catalogue of hit singles with the ferocity of a caged beast:

He also made a point to address his fans, shaking hands and making jokes throughout the set. Some people around me were whispering about his apparent weight gain, but that didn’t stop him from keeping the energy level high the entire time he was on stage.

You can tell Busta and Spliff enjoy what they do. Years of doing shows together has gotten these guys to the point where they could rock a crowd in a supermarket parking lot if they had to, and it would still be an impressive performance.

Busta even entered BEAST MODE at one point during the night:

Overall, the party delivered on its promise to bring a number of NFL players and superstar rappers together under one roof for the general public to enjoy. Busta was still going strong when I ran out of space on my memory cards around 3 a.m.

While I’m disappointed I missed EPMD, it was worth it to be able to get good shots and take in performances by artists who appeared to enjoy being in town for the Pro Bowl.

Sure, the hotel industry is going to take a big hit when the all-star game doesn’t return next year, but local residents will also suffer the loss of quality concerts like these every February. If it weren’t for the Pro Bowl, some of these shows wouldn’t happen at all.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Nightlife, Music, Clubs/Bars, Picture Blogs, Adventures in Clubland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.