FRIDAY

>> Pepper returns home for Republik concert

The high-energy rockers of Pepper are making a short visit to their home turf this weekend. You might have caught them at Turtle Bay on Thursday, but if not, drop in at The Republik on Friday.

The trio, consisting of guitarist-vocalist Kaleo Wassman, drummer Yesod Williams and bassist-vocalist Bret Bollinger, went from the Kailua-Kona coastland to sunny Southern California in 1999. Once on the mainland, they became stalwarts on concert series like the Warped Tour, and could be heard frequently on soundtracks for TV shows and film.

Last year, they released their seventh studio album, “Ohana,” which marks a return to roots in several ways. With songs like the moody “Start You Up” to the fun-loving “Vacation” and the intense “Never Ending Summer,” the band’s reggae/surfer rock sensibility comes out in full color.

FRIDAY-SATURDAY

>> Bassist from Bauhaus to play DJ and live sets

Yes, it’s the holidays — time for bright lights and good cheer — but if you’re in need of something completely different, check out David J, a founding member of the British post-punk band Bauhaus, who stops by for two performances in downtown venues this weekend.

Born David John Haskins, David J wrote several Bauhaus songs, including the lyrics for their first major single, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” commemorating the actor who played Count Dracula, vampire who wouldn’t die. David J’s quietly intense bass playing drove the nine-minute-long tune, which with its repetition of the word “undead” became a symbol of the goth culture and made for a haunting introduction to the 1983 David Bowie-Catherine Denueve film “The Hunger.” In keeping with Dracula’s inability to die, the song was reorchestrated for acoustic instruments by composer Jill Tracy in 2013 in what might be called a “noir wave” interpretation.

Bauhaus would have its biggest hit in 1982 with its version of Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust.” David J would pay tribute to Bowie in 2016 with “The Day That David Bowie Died,” which reached No. 4 on the U.K. vinyl charts. The song is featured on “Vagabond Songs,” a limited-release vinyl album featuring acoustic music which came out in March.

David J will be one of several performers to give DJ sets on Friday at The Underground, 1146 Fort St., starting at 8 p.m. ($25). On Saturday at Nextdoor he’ll give a live performance. The evening also includes DJ sets and a performance by belly dancer NagaSita.

SATURDAY

>> Renowned quartet violinist to give solo recital

Violinist Martin Beaver, a favorite among local chamber music aficionados, returns to Honolulu for a recital with University of Hawaii piano professor Jonathan Korth.

Beaver, a native of Canada, was first violinist with the Tokyo String Quartet from 2002 until it disbanded in 2013. During his tenure the Tokyo Quartet was the only group in which all four members played on instruments that were made by Antonio Stradivari and were owned for a time by Paganini, the two biggest names in the violin world. The group would make some historic recordings, particularly a 2006 album of the Beethoven quartets that was praised as “polished and thoughtful” and providing “many insights into the inexhaustible world of Beethoven’s imagination” by Gramophone Magazine.

Beaver now teaches at Yale University and the Colburn School in Los Angeles in addition to maintaining an active performing schedule. Here he’ll perform some of the greatest works in the violin repertoire: Beethoven’s heroic C-minor sonata; Bach’s transcendent Chaconne for solo violin in D minor; Faure’s expressive A-major sonata; and Ravel’s wild, Gypsy-inspired “Tzigane.”

WEDNESDAY-DEC. 10

>> Average White Band brings blues and funk

Back in the mid-1960s, the American music scene was experiencing what became known as the “British Invasion.” Less obvious — at least from these shores — was the fact that American musical genres, particularly those considered to be “black” music — blues, R&B and soul — were making a big impact in the U.K.

“The guitar guys were into the blues, the singers amongst us obviously were into soul music, and the horn players were all into bebop/R&B/jazz, of the Cannonball Adderley kind,” Alan Gorrie said, in an interview with British music site bluesandsoul.com.

Gorrie, a bassist, would join several of his fellow Scotsmen to form a funky, fun-loving band whimsically called the Average White Band, which rolls into town for a gig at Blue Note Hawaii next week. The band now consists of Cliff Lyons (sax, keyboards, vocals), Rob Aries (keyboards, bass), Brent Carter (lead vocals), Rocky Bryant (drums), Fred Vigdor (tenor sax, keyboards, vocals), and original members Gorrie and Onnie McIntrye (guitar, vocals).

AWB became a huge hit in the U.S. in the mid-’70s, with its tune “Pick Up the Pieces” reaching No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart in 1975 (an odd interlude between chart toppers by Linda Ronstadt and The Eagles) and earning the band a TV appearance on “Soul Train.” The band had several other hits, including “Cut the Cake” and “Queen of My Soul,” but “Pick Up the Pieces” continues to resurface in movie soundtracks when a sense of fun and energy is called for. A good tune is a good tune, no matter where it comes from.