Many students may not ever get to see acts like Bon Jovi or Journey play live, but they can find suitable substitutes around the Baton Rouge area.Cover bands offer a familiar and entertaining music environment. As opposed to original bands, cover bands such as the Chee Weez and High Harper Lane play music that people know and can enjoy.But while entertaining crowds is a common goal, the reasons for forming a cover band varies.Bands like the Chee Weez play full time. Others, like High Harper Lane, play for fun.Joey Mangiapane, bassist for the Chee Weez, has been with the band for four years.”Kris [Lacoste, the frontman], Mark [Hebert, the drummer,] and myself were in a band in the early ’90s called Black Diamond,” Mangiapane said. “When we split up, I started an original band, and Kris started the Chee Weez.”The band, which plays everything from hip-hop to ’80s rock, has been together for 10 years and spent their early years in the Houma area. It was voted “Best New Cover Band” in 1999 in Offbeat magazine.”They started in Thibodaux and Houma, and it kind of carried over to the New Orleans area,” Mangiapane said. “We’ve started playing the college market in the past few years.”As the band’s fame has grown, so has its performances, crowds and paychecks.”Since 2005, we’ve sold out every show at the Varsity,” Mangiapane said.While Mangiapane didn’t disclose how much the band earns for shows, he did say they receive most of the money charged at the door.”It’s a good way to make a living,” he said. “We want to do this full-time and for as long as we can.”The band, known for its high-energy performances, has added new songs to the setlists. They have also incorporated dramatic body paint into performances.”We’ve hired makeup artists that do body paint on us for the shows,” Mangiapane said.High Harper Lane is a cover band made up of University students. Wesley Hightower, frontman and economics senior, started playing at Mellow Mushroom’s Open Mic Night his sophomore year. “I asked my friend to play with me once because it’s much more fun to play with another person,” Hightower said. “It opens more doors when there’s more people involved.”He was right. More members joined the duo — including Hightower’s Kappa Sigma pledge brothers — and were eventually asked to play at Shady’s Bar. The band doesn’t have a manager. Instead they book themselves at various bars in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.As for song choices, the band picks music that will make the biggest impression.”We think about songs that everyone is going to like,” Hightower said. “We do have a little bit of our own stuff, but it’s a matter of pleasing the crowd. Plus, it’s more fun to play covers.”While the Chee Weez is a career band, High Harper Lane may be more of a hobby.”Once I graduate, I’m probably going to move back to Houston,” Hightower said. Ryan Robert, nursing student at Our Lady of the Lake in New Orleans, attended a show at The Caterie when the cover band Monday Night Band played. The band plays every Monday at The Caterie.”The song selection was different because they mixed in a few different genres,” Robert said. “It made them better than hearing the same songs over and over like some other bands.”Robert said he will definitely see them again because he “likes live music.”
 
–Contact Ashley Norsworthy at [email protected]