Excited fans playing air guitar, dancing, and screaming ‘rock and roll,’ filled Newport Music Hall Saturday night. Big Head Todd and the Monsters thrilled the audience for nearly two hours, playing a mixture of old and new songs. They stopped the music only to introduce a new song from their upcoming CD, Beautiful World.The Colorado-based band includes Todd Park Mohr, lead singer, who plays guitar and writes the songs, Rob Squires on bass, and Brian Nevin on drums. They have been friends since high school and became a band 11 years ago while attending the University of Colorado. ‘We thought, ‘well, let’s start a band and make some money on the side. It’ll be fun,” Nevin said casually.Nevin described their music as straight rock and roll, with roots in blues, soul and country. When the band first started, they played a lot of blues and soul covers. They came up with their name as an ode to blues musicians such as Eddie ‘Clean Head’ Vinson.’We never thought we’d be doing this professionally, so we felt really comfortable giving ourselves a silly name,’ Nevin said. The trio has put out four records, the first two on their own label. They became popular across the country and record companies started to notice.’It was the first major label release when it really blew open nationally, which is natural because they have the power to promote you on a bigger scale,’ Nevin said. ‘But even before that, we had a great audience across the country.’Nevin said the band enjoys playing smaller venues such as the Newport better than large auditoriums because it allows more intimacy with the crowd. ‘It’s great when you can see people sweat and they can yell at you,’ Nevin said smiling. ‘We can hear people yelling out songs, throwing things at you. That’s rock and roll.’Luckily, the only thing thrown at them during the Newport show was a hat. The audience at the Newport included people of all ages, ranging from college students dancing on chairs to gray haired couples sitting quietly, enjoying the music.’We’ve always been able to appeal to a large audience,’ Nevin said. ‘That’s one thing I think we’re most proud of in a way because it’s not just limited to an MTV crowd.’Nevin credits a lot of their success to their fans and said they are just as much as part of the show as their music. ‘This band rocks,’ said Mary Beth Altiero, an Ohio State graduate. ‘They appreciate their fans so much. They’re like real people. They’re just cool. They enjoy what they do.’Nevin said enjoying what they do is one reason for their longevity.’I think we’ll always do it at the pace where it’s enjoyable and we can do it sincerely,’ Nevin said. ‘If it’s not something that we really want or love doing, it’s not a sincere thing. But we’ve always been good at saying ‘we’ll make decisions to make us happy and do what we want for us.”Despite all their touring, Mohr, Squires and Nevin have kept their home in Colorado.’It’s a nice place to live especially with what we do because you travel,’ Nevin said. ‘You go everywhere, you spend a lot of time in cities. It’s nice to go home to a quiet place.’The recording of Beautiful World was the easiest of the band’s four recordsto make, Nevin said. One reason being they worked with a producer who had the same vision as they did. ‘We kind of knew what to expect,’ he said. ‘We also knew what we wanted to accomplish.’Their goal for Beautiful World was simply to make a great record.’Whether anyone buys it or not, it doesn’t matter,’ Nevin said. ‘The record was made and it was great.’