Virginian quintet (The Hot Seats) thrive on diversity . . . The action is virtually non-stop, the musicianship superb, with fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar coalescing with humour and speed and powered by a communally owned and played double-bass, drums and washboard. – The Glasgow Herald, 2008

 

“The young five man acoustic band play with verve, vigour and a true feel for the roots of their chosen idiom. Which stilted critic-speak completely fails to convey the sheer fun and laughter of the show. If you like this sort of music, you must go. Everyone else should go and those who leave without having had a good time are just not the sort of people whom I would want to meet.” – BroadwayBaby.com, 2008

BLUEGRASS, old-time, skiffle, jug band … stir them up vigorously, throwing in elements of zany vaudeville , add some unpredictable tics, then stand back and watch The Hot Seats go. – The Edinburgh Scotsman, 2008

What’s In A Name

Relish — Winston-Salem Journal

The Hot Seats — This group of acoustic musicians from Richmond play a type of music that has been described as acoustic mayhem — a good thing, in this case. The group is a stylistic mixed bag, incorporating elements of vaudeville, jug-band music, bluegrass, old-time string-band music — and, naturally, various Eastern European musical traditions. It’s careening, high-energy entertainment that is off the rails — but expertly performed.

 

Listen Up

Relix Magazine, August 2006

The Hot Seats specializes in unearthing and inventing traditional music and twisting it into new concoctions. Full of virtuosity and reverent irreverence, they are a sight to behold.

The Hot Seats

Haymaker Productions

A friend of mine asked me, Are you sure you want The Hot Seats to play? Have you heard them? Yes, I have. Multiple times. The Hot Seats is a stringband that may seem a little hard to swallow for some. Much like the Fugs and Holy Modal Rounders before them, their shows are veritable litmus tests for a crowd’s sense of humor. If you’ve ever answered yes to Frank Zappa’s question Does humor belong in music? then The Hot Seats are for you. They’re straight-up nuts when they pick and sing, and if you can get past the lovely freakishness of their stage act, you’ll find some real talent backing up the zaniness.

Music Review

C’Ville Weekly – 6/2004

That’s exactly the amount of kazoo soloing you can hear before the audience starts throwing bottles at the stage; we’ve timed it, joked mandolin player Josh Bearman after his bandmate’s extended solo on the buzzing tube of plastic. The Hot Seats, perhaps the only band in Virginia history to mix bluegrass, kazoo riffs and Soungarden covers, did seem to have a timely hold on their music’s comic interjections. After opening their set at Gravity Lounge with an assault of washboard-driven rural twang, the band spiked their striking instrumentation with dolphin impersonations, rhythmic armpit-fart solos and songs about Richmond transvestites. Unabashedly goofy and unmistakably talented, the Hot Seats delivered with an R-rated mix of witty irreverence and bluegrass tradition.

Just three microphones handled the band’s seven-part instrumentation and layered harmonies, but scant amplification did little to detract from swift, solo-oriented numbers like, Pony Express,and light-hearted waltzes like Day at the Ocean, and In the Pines. Band members freely walked about the stage as they changed broken strings and retrieved beers from the wings. While the audience remained seated for the duration of the show, the loose assembly of about 30 twenty-something’s showed genuine interest, and the Hot Seats responded with a focused, comfortable performance. Each member even took a stab at lead vocals, most memorably wide-eyed, bushy-bearded bassist Patrick Turner, who gave a hysterical, octave-spanning country interpretation of Led Zeppelins “Immigrant Song.” After two hours of comedy and bluegrass, the Shortbus drove back to hometown Richmond. Hopefully, Charlottesville is now part of its permanent route. – Andrew Leahy

Savannah writeup

Connect Savannah

Slightly disturbing dada-esque Va.-based string band that’s one part Beefheart freakout and two parts trad jug-band.

10 Years of Smiles and Music in NC

Jambase.com – 9/2004

Ease into the day with acoustics. Or at least that was the plan. What we didn’t expect was the vaudeville onslaught of The Hot Seats Bluegrass Band. Opening up the brand new Hydro Stage, The Hot Seats brought a mix of old-time stomp and medicine-show theatrics. The band featured guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, washboard, kazoos, and even an armpit solo. Yes, an armpit solo, and a musical one at that. No mere novelty, these pitsqueaks varied in tone and pitch, and even contained their own little melody. It was truly the greatest thing I saw all weekend. Their setlist ranged from originals about groundhogs (note, “Groundhog” is not our song, it’s a traditional PF Shortbus) and New Orleans to traditional covers like Sweet Georgia Brown, which included a beautiful fiddle solo and a raucous banjo undercurrent. A freewheeling take on Frank Zappa’s Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance. What’s the Ugliest Part of Your Body? led straight into a sideways version of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun.

- Paul Kerr