By Jason Genegabus

Keri Hilson with Lil Wayne (left) during filming of her music video, “Turnin’ Me On.” (Courtesy photo)

Unless you were paying attention (and knew where to look), it was easy to miss all the behind-the-scenes drama that surrounded Keri Hilson (pictured), the opening act for Saturday’s Honolulu stop of Lil Wayne’s “I Am Music” tour at the Blaisdell Arena, earlier this week.

As is normally the case when big names come to town, the semi-famous artists who travel out here also look for opportunities to make a little extra money on the side. In addition to their shows at the Blaisdell, these folks will agree to autograph signings and meet-and-greets at local nightclubs. Sometimes, they’ll land an additional performance at another venue.

In Hilson’s case, the artist who sings “Turnin’ Me On” has agreed to appear at LEVEL4 Nightclub and Ultralounge following her set at the Blaisdell on Saturday. Hawaiian Hurricane Productions will host the event, which starts at 10 p.m. Hilson is expected to mingle with fans, then perform on stage at LEVEL4 sometime after midnight.

The drama came earlier this week, when the promoters of Friday’s “The Peach” weekly party announced that Hilson would perform that night. When I got word from HHP, I immediately got in touch with my contacts at LEVEL4 to determine if she would perform both Friday AND Saturday.

According to LEVEL4, the Friday promoters jumped the gun by announcing Hilson’s appearance. Despite what you may have read in another publication this week, she won’t be at LEVEL4 tonight.

Instead, “The Peach” will feature a performance by Electrik Red, a new all-female R&B group who signed with Def Jam. They’ll be joined at LEVEL4 by DJ Wreck, fomerly of Nick Cannon’s MTV series “Wild ‘N Out.”

And while we’re on the subject of “big” names coming to Hawaii to perform, yet another local publication attempted to dispel the notion that “acts in their prime no longer want to play on our rock in the middle of the Pacific.”

But that was never the case.

I went back and checked my notes for the last year or so, and found the following artists all paid a visit to our state:

All-American Rejects
Angels and Airwaves
Incubus
Jason Mraz (twice!)
Plain White T’s
Ween
Wowowee

Want to talk hip-hop? Kid Cudi is turning out to be a pretty big deal, and he’s been out here both this year and last year. 50 Cent, Flo Rida and Questlove (from Jimmy Fallon’s house band, The Roots) have also performed here in the last 12 months.

Keep going? Okay.

Gwen Stefani played the Blaisdell in 2007. Kanye West performed there in 2006. The same year, Damian Marley packed them in at the Waikiki Shell.

My point is that the local concert scene “>hasn’t changed much since I started covering it in 2001.

Top level acts still come to Hawaii.

They never stopped.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 8:18 pm and is filed under Nightlife, Outside The Club, Music, Clubs/Bars. 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.