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Band Charity Corporate Event Greenville Hot As A Pepper Live Entertainment Music Spartanburg Upstate Wedding

Yes, HAAP does themed gigs – 60s, 70s, 80s, Rock, Dance

It's Party Time!
It’s Party Time!

While Hot As A Pepper is primarily known as a variety band, covering a wide range of genres such as Rock, Beach, Disco, Funk, R&B, Motown, Soul, Country and more, we are also capable of doing shows that are heavily weighted towards a specific genre.

Thanks to a huge and ever growing repertoire, and a crew of talented professionals who have been playing music most of their lives, this is an easy task for us.

Here are a few themed shows we have done so far:

70s themed Gala – We were booked to play music mostly from the 70s, with a few requests that took us back to the 60s, and early 80s, but kept it mostly in the 70s across several styles, mostly dance. This was an all-out event where many people looked the part by wearing clothing from the 1970s.

Shag / Beach / Dance Fraternity & Sorority Parties – These kids today, like some older music and we are happy to give it to them. While not a “beach band”, we can play 2 hours of shag worthy music and it’s made the people very happy! We have been involved in several of these events for Clemson Greek organizations.

Rock Shows – We have done several events that were mostly rock, from classic rock to southern rock. These have ranged from biker type events to a wedding. They usually request a country song or two at these, and these events are more casual.

Dance Events – These are usually a combination of Disco, Funk, Beach, Pop and Rock, and is what we specialize in. A variety of songs carefully picked to make your booty wiggle. Festivals, Wedding Receptions, Parties, Fundraisers. You name it, we’ve played this type of music for many occasions.

60s show coming up? We have been talking with an organization that wants a 1960s themed show, with ONLY songs from the 60s. After carefully looking at our current song list, it’s easy to see that we have no problem covering two and a half hours of music without adding anything new, however, if you know us, we WILL add several songs for that event.

Yes, Hot As A Pepper really is the “Swiss Army Knife of Bands”, as one person described us. We can do most anything for you, so let us know what you have in mind and we can talk about it! Welll, maybe not Polka, Folk, or Death Metal, however, one of the places we have played a couple times has inquired about us playing a Country themed event.

Looking to do an event that is 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, rock, disco, funk, dance, shag themed? We would love the opportunity.

Let’s talk about booking Hot As A Pepper for your wedding, reunion, festival, or other special event! We cover Greenville, Spartanburg, Clemson, Seneca, Anderson, Simpsonville and anywhere within a few hours of the Upstate of South Carolina!

Contact us *HERE* or call 864-979-1224

 

 

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Band Chris Eller Event Fun Function Greenville Horns Hot As A Pepper John M. Hoyt Live Entertainment Music Party Reception Upstate Venue Wedding

Hot As A Pepper band receives accolades for playing an Upstate wedding reception

Hot As A Pepper loves playing wedding receptions and parties! Why? Because we get to hang out with people who want nothing more than to have fun, and more importantly, we get to share in a very special moment in a couple’s lives!

One couple, Todd & Joy, had seen our band perform at one of our favorite venues to play (The Spot on The Alley in Seneca) and decided that we would compliment their wedding day well, so they booked us for the wedding reception.

Their wedding director, Dee, was incredible, tending to every last detail, and making the venue (The Lighthouse) look more beautiful than it ever had for other events we have played there.

My Daughter, Megan Hoyt, played piano for the ceremony music and afterwards, sang and played piano and guitar for the cocktail hour music. I even sat in with Chris Eller to accompany her on a couple songs.

Then, Hot As A Pepper fired up and played a few special songs we had learned for the bride and groom’s first dance and the father/daughter dance, etc…. After which we saw a non-stop dance party until the last chords rang out. During the breaks we kept the crowd going with some popular line dance songs that had been requested.

Mission accomplished! It was an amazing night for the band!

Yesterday, we received this posting from the newlyweds on our Facebook Page:

Client supplied photo of guests enjoying some Hot As A Pepper!
Client supplied photo of guests enjoying some Hot As A Pepper!

Todd Scharich > ‎Hot As A Pepper:

Thank you to Hot As A Pepper for providing a memorable night of entertainment at our recent wedding at the Lighthouse! The dance floor was full all-night long, with great selections of all genres from beach music and through every decade including current hits. The band was a pleasure to work with and we look forward to seeing them again soon. Thanks to Chip, John and the rest of the band!

I guess I don’t have to tell you… This is the icing on the cake! When you can do what you love doing, such as your band playing for a wedding, and then get positive feedback that people loved your work, it just doesn’t get better than this!
Thank you to Todd & Joy for trusting in Hot As A Pepper to play for their wedding. We wish you two a long lifetime of happy times and great music! We want to play for your anniversary parties!
– John
John plays bass for Hot As A Pepper and writes nonsense such as this blog post and silly comments on the band’s facebook page.  The band is available for your wedding reception, party or other event in the Greenville area and out a few hours. We can provide a smaller “core” band of 4 or 5 people, or we can add our horns and an additional vocalist to cover just about any style of music you may desire!
Need cocktail or dinner hour music? How about ceremony music? We can handle all that. Give us a call, or use this FORM to get info on how to book or hire Hot As A Pepper!
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Band Equipment Gear Greenville Hot As A Pepper Instruments John M. Hoyt Uncategorized

Are you using protection? Hot As A Pepper is! #SoundAdvice

Mackie DL-1608 in Red Dirt Case road case
Mackie DL-1608 16 channel digital mixer in custom made Red Dirt Cases road case

Just over a year ago, Hot As A Pepper ditched our Allen & Heath mixing console and snake in favor of moving into this century and going digital AND wireless. Find the original post HERE.

In short, we opted for the Mackie DL-1608 mixer that uses an iPad for a control surface, and interfaces with iPad/s wirelessly to allow mixing from anywhere in the venue without the need for a snake creating a health and safety hazard to guests (or the console taking up a valuable seat in the venue).

This has worked out wonderfully for us!  We can save our settings once dialed in and though we don’t like to do so, we can opt to not do a sound check and know that everything is close.

But, that mixer has a LOT of potential failure points. You could drop it while moving it, or lose or break the external power supply, wifi access point or its power supply or network cable, etc. Then there are the pots on the top, 16 of them that can get bumped so the setting is not the same or they could even be damaged as they protrude from the case.

We’ve been carrying the thing around from place to place, treating it with kid gloves and praying we didn’t leave the power supply or a cable behind at a gig or at the practice studio, and then carefully readjusting each of the trim pots after we setup and before we powered it up.

I searched for an adequate road case, but there are none. Even the Mackie soft case doesn’t address most of the items on our wishlist… I found one company/guy who was making a suitable case at one point, though they are no longer doing so. However, the photos of that case were all the inspiration it took for me to find someone to build something similar for us!

That’s when I contacted Jason at Red Dirt Cases down in Texas (contact information at the bottom). I sent photos of our mixer, photos of the other case I found, measured our mixer and sent the dimensions as provided by Mackie over to him. We had several email discussions about how the mixer could be supported securely, where the power supply and the wireless access point could be mounted case, how the mixer cools and what type of case I actually wanted (carpet vs traditional, etc).

Today that case arrived, and I could not be happier. It fits like a glove… LIKE A GLOVE! I don’t think I would change a thing at all about it!

It will come out of the vehicle, be placed on top of my bass rig, the lid removed, and one single power plug connected to the AC, then mics, instruments, monitors and mains connected, and we’re done. All the settings on those pots should be where I left them.

The power supply and our wireless access point are UNDER the mixer.The mixer sits on strips of higher density foam.

If you have a Mackie DL-1608 or the DL806, then you need to get that thing protected if you take it out on the road.  Red Dirt Cases now have the dimensions and could provide you with a duplicate, or modify it to suit your needs.

Sure, there are a load of road case dealers and manufacturers out there.  I went with Red Dirt Cases after finding them in an internet search and reading reviews, however, what sold me was the eagerness of Jason to get this right for me.. The whole process was painless and he shared photos of the build as he progressed.

I’ll use them for other upcoming projects too because:

  • The build quality is outstanding.
  • The hardware is not going to fail on me like budget cases I have had.
  • The price is fair.
  • Communication was GREAT

You can find Red Dirt Cases here:

http://www.reddirtcases.com/
1-877-724-2531

If you are in the Greenville / Upstate SC area and catch our band out, I’ll be happy to show it to you in person at a gig or even at my office, just let me know.  – John

Here are some photos:

Closed view of Red Dirt Cases road case made for Mackie DL-1608 mixer
Closed view of Red Dirt Cases road case made for Mackie DL-1608 mixer
Red Dirt Cases road case made for Mackie DL-1608 mixer
Red Dirt Cases road case made for Mackie DL-1608 mixer
Rear view of Red Dirt Cases road case made for Mackie DL-1608 mixer
Rear view of Red Dirt Cases road case made for Mackie DL-1608 mixer
Categories
Band Corporate Event Event Festival Fun Greenville Horns Party

Greenville SC Main Street Friday was super duper fun!

Our horn section, “The Habanero Horns”, made their public debut last Friday to a few thousand of our closest friends at Greenville’s Main Street Friday show.

Ed Wimberly and Ryan Kouvolo did a bang up job and we have had people complimenting them for days!

If you would like to book Hot As A Pepper for your corporate event, or a wedding, or maybe your high school reunion, we can plug in the horns for just a little extra and they will take it to another level!

Here’s our favorite song from the Main Street gig:

Hot As A Pepper is ready, willing and able to book your shindig!  Let’s talk about that…

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Band Club Function Hot As A Pepper

It’s a new year and Hot As A Pepper is ready to help you rock it out!

We made it through 2013 and have 2014 well under way!

Hot As A Pepper saw a lot of fantastic gigs last year, and this year is looking as though we will see just as many with already a pretty full calendar through July!

Don’t worry, there are still plenty of opportunities for us to play at your Greenville / Upstate party or event, or even bar, club or restaurant! If you have something coming up and you don’t see it listed on our calendar, give us a call or use our contact form so we can get it locked in ASAP. For booking call 864-979-1224.

We’re adding shows, updating our ever expanding song list and also getting some new equipment in order to help bring the best experience to your event!

Good luck in 2014!