Shwayze concert rocks Leavey Center

By Lauren Duffy

Alternative hip-hop duo Shwayze performed at the APB Spring Concert at Leavey Center Monday, May 24. Shwayze consists of two Malibu natives: Cisco Adler, who produces and plays guitar, and Shwayze (real name: Aaron Smith) who contributes rap to the collaborative effort.

Adler and Shwayze gained mainstream exposure with the success of their 2008 debut album, "Shwayze," that featured the summery, laid back hits "Corona and Lime" and "Buzzin'". Shwayze played at Santa Clara last week as part of a set of college tours in support of their 2009 release, "Let It Beat."

Immediately before Adler and Shwayze hopped on stage to perform for a crowd of eager Santa Clara fans, the duo sat in the green room, swigging drinks before the show, with Shwayze unsurprisingly nursing a Corona and Lime.

The pair nearly finished each other's sentences during a pre-show interview, with a quick, back and forth exchange that echoed the collaborative nature of their music.

The Santa Clara: "Listening to your music I'm reminded of Sublime and the Roots a lot. Who are some of your biggest musical influences?"Cisco Adler: "I like that!"Shwayze: "I like the Roots."CA: "I like Sublime." (both laugh)S: "You hit it right on the money."CA: "You hit it right on the f---in' money!" All joking aside, Adler said that their, "[musical] influences are all over, we have freedom to dabble in different things, that's what's fun."

On stage, Shwayze and Adler brought the energy with "Livin' it Up," a super-catchy, club-ready track from "Let it Beat." Shwayze and Adler cited Snoop Dogg as their favorite collaborator on their second album, and the "Dogg Father" (as Adler jokingly referred to Snoop) was featured on this upbeat, horn-sampling track.

"Sometimes you need some fast music to party to, and sometimes you need some slow music to party to, so we're trying to fill in the gaps," said Adler.

The rock-n-roll, party lifestyle is a major influence on Shwayze's music, and on stage Shwayze even asked the enthusiastic crowd, "Where's the after party?"

"I smoked some Santa Clara weed a couple hours ago... I'm high, I'm not lying... after the show, let's get stoned," Shwayze said on stage.

Shwayze showed off his beat box skills with an a capella beat box intro to their laid back, summery song "Buzzin'," one of the highlights of the show. Adler and Shwayze displayed great stage presence during the concert, whipping the crowd into the frenzy by jumping around onstage and constantly engaging in banter with the audience, which consisted largely of neon-wearing Santa Clara underclassmen.

The audience danced and sang along to crowd favorite "Corona and Lime"; the lyrics "she like hip hop and rock n roll" reflecting the hybrid rap/rock nature of Shwayze's music. The energy picked up with the bass-heavy, club-ready track "Man Eatrr," a song from "Let It Beat."

The concert opened with a smooth set from Iration, a group of Hawaiian natives who played mellow reggae-tinged jams. Iration sounded great and did their best to hype up the crowd; they played songs from their latest album "Timebomb" accompanied by thumping bass and cool neon visual effects.

The concert was not as well attended as previous Activities Programming Board concerts, such as the Welcome Weekend Concert with Kid Cudi and Milkman last September.

"I was quite disheartened with the crowd turnout for the concert," said Senior Bianca Avanceña, assistant director of APB, through e-mail. "Still, the people who did attend the concert seemed to be enjoying themselves throughout the show, which definitely helped boost our team's spirits."

Junior John Montgomery, the Senior Music Manager of APB, and he conducted a survey earlier this year with options for the spring concert; LMFAO, Passion Pit and The Expendables were some of the other artists considered.

"Shwayze wasn't the most popular, but he was one of the top. All of the other bands that we tried to get or actually were polled the highest, they were either unavailable or out of our price range," said Montgomery.

The singles from Shwayze's album "Let it Beat" have more of a club vibe than the acoustic, laid back sound of their first album, but Shwayze said that the electronic influence is only on a couple of tracks.

"It's not really that different, I think that the first record we were just making and discovering everything, and when it came to the second record we really sat down and tried to emphasize what we had and bring some new elements into it," said Shwayze.

"Well said, well said, friend," said Adler.

The laid back camaraderie between Shwayze and Adler goes back to when they first met back in their hometown of Malibu. Adler and Shwayze recalled the time that Shwayze hopped onstage and started freestyling to impress a girl during Adler's show with his band Whitestarr at the Malibu Inn.

Since Adler and Shwayze started working together, they gained exposure with their short-lived 2008 MTV reality show, "Buzzin.'" When asked about their reality show experience, Shwayze said that the television aspect of it provided a visual for the audience, but that they "have the music to back it up."

Shwayze performed at the indie music-fest South By Southwest in Austin, Texas earlier this year, which Shwayze described as "awesome" and "really fun." Another significant touring experience in the band's past was the 2008 Vans Warped Tour, which was their first tour together as a musical duo.

"Warped Tour is a melting pot of all different types of music. For the first tour ever it was really an experience because it's pretty much the toughest tour you could go through, every day's random, really wild," said Shwayze.

Currently, Adler and Shwayze are working on new music in the studio. "We're making two mix tapes because we always like to get new music out to the fans," said Adler.

With summer approaching, Shwayze's party-ready sound could be the perfect accompaniment for anyone wanting a taste of the rock star lifestyle.