If you’re looking for an infectiously poppy, new-to-you rock band, you might want to catch Beautiful Mess at Jack Rabbits. They’ve been around for about four years, known as a great party band; Beautiful Mess often pulls audience members up on the stage, making up impromptu songs about them.
“[We do that] because there are a lot of people who come out to shows over and over again. Seeing the exact same show over and over again can get…old. That’s one way to lose a fan base… it kind of keeps things interesting for the audience and keeps things interesting for us,” said frontman Michael LaSage.
They also keep things fresh by having band members switch instruments, especially during live shows. Andy Boesenecker and Chris Blais often switch between bass and drums. EU got the chance to speak with LaSage about the music he makes in the trio of Beautiful Mess.
“They have different styles that they play in and sometimes another drummer lends himself better to a certain song.”
Chris Blais, who generally plays bass in Beautiful Mess, jumped at the chance to play with them when he heard there was an opening, remaining mum about his inexperience with bass guitar.
“He was playing with another band at the time. He just wasn’t real happy with what they were doing…He just wanted to be in our band and just liked what we were doing…We found out a year later that he had never played bass before. He picked it up quick.”
Beautiful Mess has overcome obstacles in their life of touring. Just a few years ago, the band had every scrap of equipment stolen in New Orleans. I asked what the band had to do to earn the money to replace the equipment and LaSage replied, with typical deadpan hyperpole: “We beat up old ladies, stole their purses, anything we that we could do. A lot of looting…Andy was selling crack for a while…Nah, insurance paid for some of it and we tried our best to do what we could to make up the difference.”
After their equipment was stolen, the band decided to relocate from Jacksonville to Atlanta, which was more central to the venues they had been playing.
“There was a total of twelve people all together that moved with us. We brought a little bit of an entourage.”
Because of their entourage, and because the band wanted to meet new people in Atlanta, LaSage decided to hold Meat Mondays, wherein he cooked up a bunch of meat or barbeque and the band threw a large party.
“It’s just kind of turned into this fun thing that we do every week. Everybody has a blast…I usually get up early in the morning and start cooking Monday morning…everything’s done by eight or nine ‘o clock, and we’ve got a full house…A lot of musicians and bands come over.”
Despite the mix of musicians, people don’t pick up instruments and start playing. Instead, they use the time to chill and create an artistic community.
“Besides, a huge party where everybody’s trying to play music can get really annoying.”
Unless, of course, it’s a huge party with a stage, and Beautiful Mess is playing. You can catch just such a party at Jack Rabbits on June 15th at 9 pm.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
