LauraLea and Tripp Fabulous switch it up to please crowd

After LauraLea and Tripp Fabulous played their first set at The Marlin in Beach Haven Saturday night, club-goers were already complimenting the band members on their “awesome” musical talent and “fantabulous” selection of songs. Though it’s clear the five-piece cover band exudes a natural ability to put on a gifted performance, the members said its their dedication to making sure “everyone in the room has a really good time“ that makes them so entertaining.

“Our style is to accommodate whatever the crowd in front us wants. We literally will change our set list,” said lead vocalist and guitarist LauraLea Taraskus.

Photo by Ryan Morrill
The band plays to a geared-up audience at
The Marlin in Beach Haven Saturday night.

Taraskus, who started the band 11 years ago, said she writes a fresh set list for every show after arriving at the venue and will even use hand signals while on stage to alert the other band members of mid-performance changes. The group prides itself on playing one song into the next, leaving no room for dead air during sets.

After individuals who were part of the LBI Bar Cycle Tour requested the band play Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried,” the group altered Saturday evening’s line-up to include a few country-ish songs from Shania Twain’s “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” and Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” to “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show.

“We weren’t going to play any country. We were supposed to go right into Sublime after Blues Traveler,” said Taraskus, who claimed the lineup also had to accommodate her latest head cold because there were just some songs she would not be able to sing.

The band’s first set included other crowd-pleasing songs from Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” and “Lucky” by Daft Punk to “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers and Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’.”

Although the band members, who are full-time musicians that hail fr

Photo by Ryan Morrill
Taraskus has been singing for
over 20 years.

om all over the tristate area, have only been playing together for a few months, Nate Hall, the group’s keyboardist and other vocalist, said the members’ individual talents are what make their gigs so captivating.

“Everybody can hold their own very well,“ he said. “They’re great musicians, and together we just have a really great time. Drama normally overshadows bands, but with us it’s just fun.”

The other band members include Mike Joy on bass, Jake Wiener on drums and guitarist Steve Miceli, who’s the only other original member left.

To help switch things up, the group also likes to play their own renditions of popular songs by adding slight twists. During Saturday’s performance, the band played different mash-ups by incorporating Daft Punk’s “Lucky” into Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It.”  “Talk Dirty” by Jason Derulo was also played to the tune of Nelly’s “Hot in Herre.”

“People never expect it,” said Taraskus. “It takes a minute for people to catch on. We just do that for our own fun.”

Though the musicians said they love playing music for a living, Taraskus, who’s a single mom, acknowledged the gigs are a job.

“We can call ourselves musicians, but we’re selling booze. I hate to downplay it, but we’re selling booze, especially in the summertime. We’re selling a party,“ she said. “We want the bartenders to many money. We want the club to make money. We want everyone to make money so that we get asked to come back.”

Of course, living in the limelight has it perks.

“At the same time we can have fun with it. Playing music sure beats working for a living. My life is a full-on vacation,” said Taraskus. “I show up for work, I get to express myself creatively, I’m the center of attention, I get paid to be in bars and have fun. I hear a song on the radio – we learn it. It’s so fun to perform.”

Although she agreed the hours are tough and traveling can be tiring, Taraskus compared her career to a “lifetime of karaoke.”

“Think about how fun karaoke is. It’s so fun,“”she said. “We also get to take it and make it our own. We play it our own way. It’s not just learning words. It’s learning the whole song inside and out, learning what other song fits with it and throwing that in there, or going into it or out of it. It’s not work at all, not at all.”

— Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.