Hanging around the Taste of Veishea Stage is nothing new for Sauce Monkey Chad Johnson.

“I’m old enough to remember three of the riots,” Johnson said, laughingly. “But my favorite memory is when I was with Lunchbox (former Ames Band) and selling out the Dean’s List two nights in a row.”

The Sauce Monkeys (Herb Wambolt, guitar/vocals; Brent Watson, bass/guitar; Brian Congdon, vocals; Johnson, drums) was brought together by destiny a few years ago as members of the band were all participating in the university-wide talent show.

“When Brian and Herb were doing Varieties a very long time ago, I was playing drums for Farmhouse; that’s how they noticed me,” Johnson said. “I left school for two-and-a-half years and went and got my real job. Then last year they wanted to get together so they drove out to my house in Nebraska, and we recorded some songs.”

The band continued trading things back and forth until Johnson came back to Ames to go to school. When he returned, the musicians got together and began searching for a bass player.

Once the complete nucleus known as the Sauce Monkeys was officially formed, the group began tapping past resources and jumped into the local music scene.

“I had done it before with Lunchbox, so I already had some contacts, and then we just contacted the Nadas, who are good friends of ours,” Johnson said. “We haven’t hit nearly as hard as we wanted to, but with all of our schedules we’re doing about the best we can do.”

Like many bands starting out, the Sauce Monkeys began mixing covers in with its originals to help familiarize things a bit. In its present state, the band has over 20 originals and almost as many covers.

Johnson said the group performs about 30 songs on average at a full show.

“At first it was just songs we knew, which happened to be the basic covers that every band plays, Big Head Todd and such,” Johnson said.

“And then we started to get into the stuff we really wanted to play, so we would bring things to practice and listen to them and go from there. So now we have a lot better covers than we used to.”

When answering whether he likes originals or covers better, Johnson quickly added, “Originals by far.”

During the group’s short existence, the band has traveled around the Midwest to places like Kansas City, Davenport, Des Moines and soon Chicago.

“It’s really hard there because nobody knows you, and it’s really hit-and-miss on the nights; it’s not like anyone is going there specifically to see you,” Johnson said. “Sometimes you get it, and the next time you come back they like you — then it’s a pretty good scene. But the first time is always hard.”

In an attempt to further energize the continually increasing crowds, the Sauce Monkeys has made changes in its instrument use to help propel the amount of energy that leaves the stage and makes its way to the audience.

“We started out as just acoustic guitars, and I think it’s real hard, with my experience, to get into that kind of a show,” Johnson said. “Now we’ve added an electric guitar and now with the more people that get into our shows, there is a lot more energy.”

The band plays originals persistently, trying new ways of spicing them up with hope of one day having the success of a certain fellow local band.

“Until people get to know our originals, nobody is going to be jumping around singing like they do to ‘Dancing Lucinda’ all the time,” Johnson said. “But once people get to know them, it will just keep getting better.”

The Sauce Monkeys perform at the Taste of Veishea Stage Saturday at 8 p.m.