Hot Tub Piranhas have fun at Uncle Eddies last Saturday night

Hot Tub Piranhas hit Uncle Eddies Oceanside Tavern at Salisbury Beach last Saturday night, delivering a fun, feisty opening set. Hefty, smooth lead vocals, rangy, spiraling lead guitar phrases, and a very flexible rhythm section showed that cover bands too have something to offer musically.

Hot Tub Piranhas opened their set with Van Halen’s “So This Is Love,” showing they play with a lot of chunk in the musicianship and a lot of oomph in the vocals. Singer Wes Thibodeau belted with a lot of wind under his sails, commanding the music with his voice while commanding attention with his burly stage presence. Lead guitarist Roy Turner let loose an entertaining guitar phrase here, the kind that had his notes and chords running like a river of smoothness.

Hot Tub Piranhas may not look like a bunch of clean cut musicians but they sounded very clean during their harmony vocals on Foreigner’s “Double Vision.” Their vocal chops on the chorus made the song come alive even more, at just the right moment. Meanwhile, the rhythm section of bass player John Donlon and drummer Paul Whitmore moved the Foreigner classic around with muscular authority. You could actually feel the song’s changes as they shifted it around.

Hot Tub Piranhas had fun with The Simple Mind’s 1980s classic “Don’t You(Forget About Me.” Guitar riffage from Roy Turner got a nice chugging rhythm going on while Thibodeau put across those timeless 1980s lyrics. You could hear the Generation X decade in his vocal approach, timbre, and projection. It was also uncanny how well the rhythm section delivered the song’s motivational beat, keeping in an almost marching, anthem groove.

Next up, Hot Tub Piranhas went into some Lynyrd Skynyrd hits, one for fun and a second one for a patriotic man. They played “I Know A Little” with clean guitar licks, with Roy Turner’s guitar technique giving off more sparks as the song went on. Though Hot Tub didn’t quite play it in a southern rock tone, they sure knew how to have fun with the festive melody and groove, packing it all with energy.

Their next Skynyrd classic “Simple Man” was dedicated to a local, highly decorated World War II veteran named Lou Stamos who had pass on days earlier. Stamos had actually come face to face with General George Patton during one of his campaigns. Thibodeau filled the song with heartfelt emotion while Turner cranked out a lot of passion with his guitar, a charge of energy in every emotive note in his phrase. Meanwhile, the Hot Tub rhythm section kept it packed with purpose, a stride in their groove. One could picture Lou Stamos charging up a hill during a WWII battle as the band unfurled the Skynyrd tune with flowing dynamics.

Hot Tub went into “Hard To Handle,” its twisty groove and bracing, elegant guitar sounding particularly crisp. “Hey Jealousy” was slickly, tightly delivered, extra flint in the lead guitar fleshing out a lot of the song’s details. The Foo Fighter’s “Fear Of Flying” was built up by the band, from its groove straight up to vocal and melody lines, like careful carpentry, laying planks of sound in just the right places. “Sex On Fire” benefited from a jumpy, spiky guitar line and boundless motion from the rhythm boys. Thibodeau made the audience feel it when he belted out its audacious chorus.

That was all this writer saw before heading back to New Hampshire. I was at a house party in Newburyport only minutes earlier and was exhausted from eating and socializing. Suffice it to say, though, that Hot Tub Piranhas are a fun, feisty, north shore cover band. They only got better as their set went on and they seemed to have drawn some business into the beachfront establishment.