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Steamboat Springs — "Have you ever been to a bar," asks Blissful Mayhem lead vocalist Tom Wood, "and all night all you hear from some knucklehead is that he wants to hear 'Freebird'?"

Wood has been in this situation plenty of times. But his band members have developed a ready and logical solution: they've learned a version of "Freebird" they can live with, and they play it any time someone asks them to.

A year and a half after Blissful Mayhem formed, the quartet of 50-something Steamboat Springs musicians has a solid repertoire of rock 'n' roll covers. On Saturday, Wood and his bandmates - Johnny Kessler on lead guitar, Carol Ives on bass and Joe King on drums - bring their three-tier, purposefully joyful set to the Old Town Pub.

"Everybody has played in a multitude of local bands, and we have people from Boulder to Indiana who have played in bands all the way through, since their college years," Wood said, giving reasons for the band's ability to learn songs quickly, and for the natural ease its members have in playing together.

"When you're in your 20s and 30s, you have this drive to be a touring musician and bag a record contract, and that's really your ambition, to play music for a living," Wood said. "We all have our own careers, so we've kind of left that stress aside. So we've come together purely just to play for fun. That's everyone's goal, is to have fun with a capital 'F'."

Wood has about 125 original songs to his credit, and the band has been working at its own pace on making a record with local producer Steve Boynton, but Wood insists neither of those pursuits are the driving force behind Blissful Mayhem.

"We're not trying to promote a CD or our original music. We're just trying to create a fun kind of atmosphere," he said. That means taking just about any song request a crowd throws at them, if any of the band members have a passable chance of making it through the song. A combined century or so of experience playing in bands helps that effort.

Blissful Mayhem tries to play about once every other week and from the start has had an easy time getting gigs. The band performs regularly at OTP and Hahn's Peak Cafe, as well as for the occasional fundraiser or private party. Because no one is in it for the money, Wood said getting the band booked is a low-stress endeavor - so long as there's some semi-decent free food involved.

"One of the top priorities for the band, since the money isn't really our primary source of income, one of our main priorities is that the food be pretty good," Wood said, adding that there are some places Blissful Mayhem has only played once. It's that laid-back attitude that gives the band its lasting qualities and carefree performance style - one that's geared toward The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers Band, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Idol and anything else bar-goers can dance to.

"Steamboat has always been kind of a bluegrass, Grateful Dead, low-key country kind of place, and we really feel that we kind of fill the rock 'n' roll niche," Wood said. "We try to put on a great show and jump around. We try not to just stand there and play our instruments."