Hot As A Pepper Party Band
Hot As A Pepper Party Band Private Singles Event – We’ll be doing a private party on this date with the Habanero Horns!
If you would like to book fun local live music for your event here in the Upstate of South Carolina, we’re ready, willing and able to bring a fun and funky experience with upbeat danceable music across many genres, including rock, pop, funk, disco, top40, Motown, beach and more!
Please get with us and let us talk you into hiring us!
We discovered that one of the 15 upcoming wedding trends that’s changing everything is “live bands over DJs”.
We’ve always known that a live band is the way to go, and not because we happen to be biased, but because we have heard so many times that live music brings things to LIFE.
You rarely hear how the wedding reception was so incredible, that the rendition the DJ did of some song was perfect, however, you do hear that the band kept people dancing, and covered songs in a way that a person loved even better than the original artist.
Nothing against DJs, they are certainly handy in specific situations, but in almost ALL situations, bands leave a lasting impression on your attendees.
Let’s talk about booking Hot As A Pepper for your wedding reception, and how we can customize the experience to suit your every need.
We are available in SC, TN, GA, NC and surrounding areas in addition to our home of Upstate / Greenville, SC.
Here’s the 15 upcoming trends article for you to read:
http://living.alot.com/relationships/15-upcoming-wedding-trends-that-are-changing-everything–15776?s=17
Hot as a pepper has done shows that were based around a theme before, but it’s been a while, so we are itching to get something fun going again. If you are planning a party or event where you believe a theme would be go over well, or you have a theme based event and you need the music, let’s talk!
Here’s some ideas:
Our specialty is performing Variety Dance & Party Shows, however, with such a large repertoire, Hot As A Pepper can heavily weight any show we do towards a specific decade or genre.
With enough planning, we can create a show that specifically meets your needs. Custom tailored for you.
We can perform an entire album or every hit song from a particular artist. Imagine a night of a Stevie Wonder’s awesome music, or maybe the entire Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits!
We’re available for your function, whether it is a festival, wedding, corporate event, birthday, anniversary, graduation, or a block party… Or for your venue such as a bar, club or restaurant.
Just about any occasion or location is enhanced by live music!
Use our contact form or give us a call at 864.979.1224 if you want to plan the most awesome event ever! We’re not tied to Greenville SC or the Upstate with a chain, we can cover your event anywhere in the Southeast, or even the world. If you’ve got the money honey, we’ve got the time!
Some find themselves experiencing a bit of sticker shock when a band tells them the cost of the event will be $3000, when a DJ quoted them $800.
So why IS it so costly to hire a band or musician for your event? This is a long one, grab a drink.
Equipment Investment:
A band not only has to invest in the same speakers and amps (or larger) that a DJ might use for the audience to hear their show, but they also have to invest into a monitor system which is what the band uses to hear themselves. The band also has to invest into a mixing console with more inputs, instruments and instrument stage amplifiers. This could mean while a DJ has as little as a couple thousand dollars invested, a band might have $50,000 or more on their stage!
Also, a DJ might have some dance floor lights, while a band may have some dance floor lighting and stage lighting to illuminate the members so you can see them.
Personnel:
A DJ has a clear advantage here. Having less equipment means that it could be a one-man-show. He/she could be setup and ready to go in as little as 15 minutes!
A band may have to arrive 2 to 2.5 hours before the show in order to get setup, get a proper sound check, and then get changed and ready to perform. However, that’s not really the start of the labor involved. The band will have to load all that gear into their vehicles, a trailer/van/bus, and drive to the location. Then at the end of the night, they may remain at the venue for up to an hour tearing down and loading out their gear, then driving it to where it is kept.
Let’s examine a typical show. Band meets at 2pm and loads up gear, drives to the venue for a 4pm load-in. They then setup their gear and get a sound check and changed into show clothes for a 7pm performance. The performance lasts from 7pm to 10pm, and the band tears down and leaves by 11pm, and finally unloads at their studio or storage location and heads for home by 1am. That’s an 11 hour day. BUT WAIT! That’s not all, that’s 11 hours times how ever many band members and staff that are involved. In the case of Hot As A Pepper, that would be 6 to 9 people. or up to NINETY-NINE MAN HOURS.
A band usually has sound and lighting techs which make them sound or look their best, so they can concentrate on playing their best. That adds to the number of people involved, and the man hours of labor.
A musician in a band might have an 11 hour day for your 3 hour event!
Add to that a few scenarios such as when the band MUST SET UP by 1pm for a 6pm show because the photos are being taken at the venue, or there is a cocktail reception before the band plays. This could add many hours to the entire band’s investment in time. They cannot setup and leave their gear, nor can they do anything else to make money while their gear is tied up at that venue.
Before your show, it is likely that you requested several special songs, let’s assume 3 songs that the band doesn’t normally play. A musician might learn their part for 3 songs in as little as an hour, while more complicated songs might take several hours. Then the band must come together and rehearse them as one unit. Let’s assume 2 hours to learn them, and 2 hours to rehearse with the band, times 7…. 28 additional hours invested.
Let’s take the numbers from above, where the band invested 99 hours into a show, change the setup time to 2pm so the band can be out of the way by 5pm to allow for a cocktail and dinner hour, which adds 18 more man hours, then add the 28 man hours to learn special songs. If my math is correct, that is 145 man hours.
At the minimum wage that people are pushing for of $15/hr, that would be $2175 in pure labor!
Each musician invests into their gear and clothing, and a huge investment is made in learning their craft, which might take years. The songs they play took hundreds of hours to work up, again, times however many musicians are performing them.
A band has to have rehearsal space, which may cost them monthly.
A band may be losing 20% or more to a booking agency, right off the top.
A band may have to buy additional insurance, and for a whole lot more than a DJ.
There are meals involved during the day, and guitar strings, sax reeds and batteries for various devices.
Some bands are fortunate enough to have a van and a trailer, where all people ride in one vehicle, while others might use their personal vehicles, meaning even more investment in gas and maintenance.
So just how much do the band members make? Yeah, that’s a lot less than you might think!
Taking a $3000 wedding event which was booked through an agency as an example, we immediately lose 20%. Then we take out expenses for fuel or vehicle needs, assuming a trailer rental, and gas of $100 and let’s assume the client pays with a credit card, and we lose 3% additional (90 bucks). That’s 2210 left. If we have a single sound person, we might give them $200, which means only $2010 remains.
For this example, the band will have 7 members, and they each get an equal cut, in addition to the sound system getting an equal cut, so they can maintain it… $2010 divided by 8 is $251.25.
Each member shows invests 12 hours into prep, driving, playing, loading, etc.
That looks like each member gets $21/hr! Not bad. No no, wait…. What about taxes? If they are reporting this income, they might lose 30% in taxes, taking it down to 14.70/hr.
And yet they invested money into lunch, and maybe Waffle House afterwards (maybe dinner if that wasn’t included in the rider for the event), fuel in their personal vehicle, strings/sticks/reeds/batteries. That could run into the 25 dollar range or more.
Pay – taxes – expenses could look more like $12.50 an hour or less. Maybe much less, especially if something goes horribly wrong, like a shirt getting ripped, or a damaged instrument.
The next time you think bands are getting rich and that their rates are outrageous, consider some of the above and you might understand that you are likely getting one heck of a great deal when a music group performs for you.
Try calling in a handful of plumbers, computer techs or HVAC techs to work for you for half the day, and compare that bill with a band!
If you would like a quote for Hot As A Pepper live music entertainment, let us know! We would be happy to play your wedding reception, high school reunion, wedding anniversary party, corporate event, festival or venue! Use our CONTACT FORM and we will get back to you quickly. Or feel free to give us a call at 864.979.1224.
Today’s a great day for Hot As A Pepper! You could say we were filled with HAAPiness!
Why? Because new toys arrived and we’re itching to use them for our upcoming shows. We’ve upgraded our audio mixer from the Mackie DL1608 to the Mackie DL32R and put it in a new Gator road rack case with a Furman power distribution system, an Apple AirPort Express Wi-Fi router and a Western Digital 1TB USB hard drive.
The advantages over what we had are more inputs for more players, more outputs for more monitor mixes, additional effect capability and 32 channel record/playback. No, it won’t make us sound or look any better, but who doesn’t love more power!!?!!??
A little history about the evolution of Hot As A Pepper’s audio control system:
A while back we ditched our trusty analog Allen & Heath mixing console in an effort to make life easier on us.
What did the move to digital gain us? By losing the console, we also lost the snake, which presented a health & safety hazard at venues where someone could trip over it. It also meant we no longer had to carry that copper coil of evil around and wrap it up carefully to insure it was not damaged, along with cleaning all the gunk off of it from beer or food spillage, or even worse, the outdoor gigs where there was wet grass and dirt on it.
Another advantage of not having a big console is that the venue does not have to give up a table which could seat 2 to 4 people and make them more money. That comes thanks to wireless connectivity and using a series of tablets to control the mixer.
The audio tech or engineer uses a tablet such as an iPad in our case to sit ANYWHERE in the venue, or to roam around and listen to the sound at various locations. And they no longer control both the FOH (Front Of House) mix AND the monitor mix, they simply control what they hear. The monitor mixing takes place on stage, where the band is.
You can read about our previous transition from analog to the wonderful Mackie DL1608 16 channel digital board here and this is where we found the perfect case to protect the DL1608.
Is the DL32R or any digital mixer system right for YOUR band? Yes? No? Maybe?
If you want to lose the snake, not take up a table in the venue, YES!
If you want to be able to save settings for a venue and recall them and be close to playing without a long sound check the next time you play there, then YES.
If you want to simplify your life, MAYBE!
If you want to save money – no…
Why maybe on simplifying your life? You still need a sound tech out front if you want to sound your best out front. You now need to maintain multiple systems, such as a digital mixer, and a wireless system, and let’s not forget those iPads, which are fragile and MUST be charged and ready to go. Your sound tech may have never worked with a control surface on an iPad, whereas a traditional analog console is a snap to navigate, even if you have never seen that model before! Then there’s the potential for wireless interference which could prohibit you from controlling your audio system! It could come from wireless mics, or heavy 2.4/5GHz spectrum congestion. Oh, and let’s not forget about software updates, which could affect your system’s performance.
Want to save money? Go analog and forget the iPads, and mounts, chargers, racks, etc. Just buy yourself a nice 16-32 channel board and a snake and be done with it!
Nope, it’s not a one-size-fits-all type thing. It might not be right for you, or it may be exactly what you have been missing!
Want to discuss it? Find us out at a gig and we will show you our system and try to answer any questions we can.
You can also find me (John) online and I’ll be happy to tell you all I know.
Rock On!
About John:
John M. Hoyt is the bass player & manager of the Greenville SC based dance, party and event band, Hot As A Pepper. You can reach John at 864-979-1224 or use our CONTACT FORM.
The weekend was a beautiful preview of what spring has in store for us with temps almost touching 70 degrees.
It has some of you thinking about throwing a neighborhood block party or other outdoor event, and what goes perfect with parties? Hot As A Pepper! We’re ready to play for your individual gathering or your multi-neighbor party.
Why book a band for your block party? Because live entertainment builds excitement and energy. It can get people dancing and interacting in ways a boom box can’t!
Bands are fun and dynamic, take requests and help keep the momentum going.
What does a band need from you?
How much does it cost to hire a band for a block party? That depends on several factors.
How long do you need entertainment for? Are you providing the sound system or is the band? If it is going be at night, are lights going to be desired? Do you want an actual stage?
If you would like to talk about the details, please give us a call at 864.979.1224 or use our CONTACT FORM. We will be happy to give you a quote, and we can also handle every last detail of the entertainment for you, so you don’t even have to think about anything other than what potato salad recipe to use!
We travel within a few hours of the Greenville and Upstate SC area!
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
Hot As A Pepper enjoyed playing for the Upstate organization “InDwellings” last month! Let’s talk about why…
First of all, InDwellings has a goal to provide housing to those with special needs so that they can experience a HOME environment, not just a HOUSE. This is important because as you may be aware, our area has a large number of people who this will impact! These homes which InDwellings hopes to provide will not be some type of institutional dwelling, it will be a home filled with love. With the smell of baking cookies. Please read more about them on their website to get the latest and to make a contribution.
Back to the bash…. To help achieve their goal, they held an event called “Back to the Bash”, which was a 70s themed gala at the Thornblade Country Club here in Greenville. Hot As A Pepper was booked because we can provide several hours worth of music from just about any style or decade. For this event, we played a huge selection of music that was mostly from the 70s, peppered with a few from the late 60s and even one or two from the early 80s. Rock, Beach, Motown, Disco, Country, nothing was safe from us!
The gala coincided with the acquisition of InDwelling’s first house! It was a real celebration for sure! But it got exciting….
Delvin Choice who competed on “The Voice” was in the house, and him and our emcee, the multi-talented Michael Codgill joined our band on stage for an impromptu rendition of the James Brown classic, “I Got You (I Feel Good)”.
Here’s a clip from that….
This was a fundraiser, so Jake Ohlinger, with Ohlinger Auctions was in charge of auctioning off some outstanding items, such as an African Safari, and food packages, etc… That was a huge success, as I believe every item was sold!
Jake was so kind as to write the band this note:
Good Afternoon John & Hot As A Pepper,
Great Job! First Rate! Enjoyable! Job Well Done!
I want you and your band members to know that the InDwellings Organization was very pleased with your performance for the “Back to the Bash : Destination 1970’s” at Thornblade Club the evening of October 28th. You delivered great music and blended well with the group.
InDwellings and I wish you and your group continued success and fun in you business of entertainment and in your careers as musicians.
Sincerely and I look forward to working with you again.
Jake
Jake Ohlinger, BAS
Auctioneer
Ohlinger Auctions, LLC
200 Del Norte Road
Greenville, SC 29615
2jake@ohlinger.comcell (864) 918-7572
It’s exactly that kind of appreciation that makes our “job” worthwhile! Thanks Jake for believing in us!
If you have an upcoming event where you need fun music entertainment, won’t you please consider Hot As A Pepper? What can we do for you?
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s themed event? CHECK!
A disco or funk event? CHECK!
Variety – covering several decades and styles? CHECK!
This makes us perfect for your high school or college reunion, your big fundraiser, wedding anniversary or wedding reception.
We play all around The Upstate (Greenville, Anderson, Spartanburg, Seneca, Clemson, Simpsonville) and down to Columbia, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Savannah, also Atlanta, Knoxville, Charlotte, Asheville and beyond!
Let’s talk about how we can work together! CONTACT US…
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…
Hot As A Pepper has become a HOT commodity in the fraternity and sorority scene. Seems that students can really get into dance music like disco, beach, funk and rock which is exactly what we bring!
Why not book us for your next college event? We’re fun, we’re funky, and we’re ready to help you dance the night away. Call us today at 864-979-1224 or use the BOOKING link!
Here’s a recent sorority gig down in Clemson… On stage, the crowd was just about the same level when they sang along as our monitors! Seems like they were having a blast!
Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”
The Beatles “Twist & Shout”
We can handle all the entertainment needs so you don’t have to think about that part! From the stage, to the lights to the audio, to the music during breaks – we’ve got this!