Chee-Weez: Tasty and tuneful

One night, they are Geico Cavemen. The next, they are the Blue Man Group and the following week, they are the Mickey Mouse Club and Dog the Bounty Hunters.

When the Chee-Weez take the stage one thing is certain: audiences don’t know what to expect. It’s all a part of being entertaining, or what they like to call “cheesy.”

“No Chee-Weez show will ever be the same,” explained Joey Mangiapane, whose played bass with the band the last four years. “They don’t know what they are getting the next time they come.”

To ensure audiences aren’t bored, the Chee-Weez get together every six weeks or so and add new songs to their repertoire. Whether it’s the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s or now, the band has the Top 40 covered.

“We get together and try to learn something new that is out and something old,” Mangiapane said.

“It’s usually two or three songs each practice. Something new, something from the ’90s and probably an ’80s song. We try to learn a little of each so the audiences aren’t hearing the same thing every time.”

The Chee-Weez started out in 1997 exclusively covering disco tunes; lead singer and founder Kris Lacoste soon made the wise choice to diversify the play list.

Today, the band – Mangiapane, Lacoste, Matt Richard (guitar), Mark Hebert (drums), Daniel Dicharry (keyboards/background vocals) and Brandon Foret (saxophone) – is arguably one of the hardest working cover bands in the area, performing 120 nights of the year.

The proverbial kings of the metropolitan area’s cover circuit have opened for such touring acts as The Pointer Sisters, 38 Special and even the disco man himself, K.C. and the Sunshine Band.

The Chee-Weez has sold out the Crescent City’s House of Blues and are a guaranteed draw at festivals and clubs across south Louisiana.

Keeping their act fun and fresh is a full-time effort, too.

The band’s name, the Chee-Weez, is an indication of the group’s sense of humor.

It’s a homage to CheeWees, New Orleans-based Elmer’s version of Frito Lays’ Cheetos.

“I wasn’t in the band at the time (the name was chosen), but it worked,” Mangiapane said. “It just kind of stuck with us. It was different.”

Being memorable and different drives the Chee-Weez.

“We love feeding off of the crowd,” Mangiapane said. “We’ve been very

fortunate to have big crowds every

where we go. That’s the greatest part of being in this band. We live for that.”

The band’s “cheesiness” was captured on their 2002 release, “As Cheesy As They Wanna Be.” The CD was recorded live at the Last Call in Thibodaux, and includes covers of works by Journey, Van Halen, Styx, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bon Jovi, among others.

“We try and work on harmonies and stuff as much as we can,” Mangiapane said. “We get as close as possible. We just listen to the record a lot of times when we don’t have time to practice. We’ll say, ‘Everyone listen to the CD, learn it.’ We’ll do it in soundcheck and, if it sounds good, we’ll play it. If we all learn our part, we’re fine.”

The Chee-Weez’s Houma-Thibodaux connection runs deep.

It was here they first began drawing crowds.

It was what made the Last Call an ideal venue for recording live tracks.

“When Kris and them started off, they were playing the Abyss in Houma and Last Call,” Mangiapane said. “The band started doing a lot better down there than they were doing in New Orleans. It’s kind of an adopted hometown for us. That’s really where we started doing well. That was really the first mark for us.”

The Chee-Weez returns to Thibodaux’s Last Call Dec. 13.

“We thank everyone for the support,” Mangiapane said. “Hopefully everyone enjoys watching us perform as much as we love performing. We love the area.”