Quirky NY Chick: Hot Seconds: Cool, Beastly, Animalistic & Rock Star

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Hot Seconds: Cool, Beastly, Animalistic & Rock Star

3:42 AM | Posted by Quirky NY Chick

Hot Seconds: July 1 @ Mercury Lounge, New York, NY

After the near year long show drought, those darling rascals known as Ho

t Seconds, hit the stage for the second time in less than a month this past Thursday night. This time, it was their return to LES venue Mercury Lounge.

The band, James Love (vocals/guitar), Eran Westwood (guitar/vocals), Marcel Simoneau (bass) and Ian Hudgins (drums/vocals) made their way to the stage and delighted those in attendance with a ten song set that included the three new songs they rolled out last month. I'm tellin' you, I'm still in lust with "Die Like A Dog." This has made my list of need to hear Hot Seconds songs. They're working on a new record, hence the new songs ... yeah, I'm waiting.

If you were at the show last month and or have been keeping up with my little corner of the internet, then you know that Simoneau has taken over bass duties. He seemed more than a little anxious last time, understandably, especially the first few songs of the night. But, Thursday, it looked like he had lost most of his nervous energy and is over there slipping into Mr. Cool mode. His rhythmic partner-in-crime is a heavy drummer and Simoneau holds his own quite well, not getting overpowered. Hmm, ya know, this has led me to wonder if Simoneau has past bass experience or if he just takes to it naturally. I'll have to remind myself to ask that next time around.

So, my rock star has come back y'all. Oh he was singing and playing and dancing ... oh yeah, he's got

some moves. Love put down his guitar for "Pieces of You" ... think that's the one. Hey, I didn't take notes. What? Y'all think I'm professional or something?! And, he also took it off mid-song during "Helicopter" but let us not talk about that as I got the full memory card message just as he took his guitar off. Now that they've shaken off the bit of stage rust that we saw at the last show, Love is back to seeming more relaxed and began testing his rock star wings out again.

I camped out in Westwood World ... stage right for those uninitiated in quirky speak. It's been awhile since I've visited that side. It's too dark over there. With all of the mood lighting over on stage right, I half expected Westwood to start playing bow chicka wah wah. Really, it's dark over there and strange things happen in the dark, they say. Tall, dark and laid back, took to the stage, put on his intense stony face and proceeded to roar like the beast he has become ... all hail. I wanna know where this guy goes and what he does that has him coming back each show with these guitar deity happenings that manifest themselves on-stage. I've mentioned previously that the harder sounds suit him well. But, let's not neglect those moments when he tosses in a some jangly funk or a

little reggae. Yeah, he goes there too.

Of course being camped out in the land of darkness gives you a perfect line of vision for watching the drummer get wicked. Y'all know I have mad love for the skills of Hudgins. Last time I said he seemed a little conservative, which was cool; I'm down with conservative. But, Thursday night he was back to being animal. I like animal, yeah, I do. He was heavy, intense and wild. The kind of wild that made you feel at any moment he was going to go over the edge and take you with him. He literally makes me shiver. Hey, we're talking about his insane drumming ... don't want y'all thinking I'm over here being dirty old lady'ish; I'm a respectable woman people. Anyway, that's the kind of description I normally reserve for guitar playing.

I always have fun at Hot Seconds shows as if you couldn't tell. I look forward to the next one. Check out the video below. Yeah, the camera work is questionable. There was a reason for it and it seemed like a good one ... at the time; I'm just sayin' y'all.

More photos on the QNYC Flickr page HERE.

"Gone To Ground"