Bands and Inspired DJ Sets Are a Good Fit at Hot Pants

So why does James Brown like hot pants? Because what you see is what you get. At least that’s how he explains it in song. The same can be said for the new Highland Park club Hot Pants, with a slight addition: What you see and what you hear is what you get. And for five bucks, you’re getting a lot.

Located at Mr. T’s Bowl and inspired by Fuzzyland, the old Saturday night club at the venue created by the late promoter Jac Zinder, Hot Pants occurs the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. The 2-month-old club’s creators, the husband-wife team of Sash and Christiane, are hoping to pick up where the eclectic-minded Zinder left off by offering a haven for L.A.’s underground bands and inspired deejay sets.

When the club isn’t featuring one of the four or five live bands scheduled for the night, Sash is playing deejay, usually with cassette tapes. Employing a low-tech approach, he uses dueling cassette decks to create his mix, which shifts from local unsigned acts such as Burning Sofa No. 10 and Ferdinand to David Lynch film soundtracks. Hot Pants keeps things visually stimulating with videos featuring the likes of pinup Betty Page, old punk videos, Russ Meyer movies and the occasional surprise contribution by a director/club-goer.

For live music, Hot Pants focuses on the ripe musical scene coming out of what we might call the Eastern Bloc, encompassing Silver Lake, Echo Park, Mt. Washington, Atwater and adjacent regions. The operators hope to include national touring bands next year.

The quickest way to determine whether this club’s for you is to check out Hot Pants’ special show on Dec. 14. Beginning at 2 p.m., the club will feature 12 of its favorite acts. Along with the Burning Sofa and Ferdinand, artists will include Tracy & the Hindenberg Ground Crew, Boy Scouts of Annihilation and Black Angel’s Death Song.

* Hot Pants at Mr. T’s Bowl, 5621 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park. 21 and over, $5 cover. (213) 256-7561.

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Club Buzz: The Hollywood Athletic Club will be the site of a special New Year’s Eve edition of the live music and dance club Saturday Night Large and promoters promise “the A-list, ‘90210,’ Tori Spelling crowd will be in full effect.” . . . Humpnight, a Wednesday night R&B; dance club at Billboard Live, is turning out to be a star-studded groove-athon. Sharing the dance floor last week were performers Ice-T and Bobby Brown, comedian Martin Lawrence and some very tall men in suits (rumor had it they were Lakers).

* Saturday Night Large, (213) 715-8884. Humpnight, (213) 464-8940.