{"id":827,"date":"2020-08-27T01:36:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T01:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=827"},"modified":"2026-06-27T01:39:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T01:39:31","slug":"better-than-ezra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=827","title":{"rendered":"Better Than Ezra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

July 2005, Carefree Theater, West Palm Beach, Fla.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are songs which define parts of our lives because they were everywhere at the time \u2014 and face it not all of these songs are good, or at least not songs you ever want to hear again. Growing up in South Florida it is impossible to get away from \u201cMargaritaville,\u201d and while I don\u2019t mind Jimmy Buffett, I hate that god-damn song.<\/p>\n

In 1995 a song came out that was pretty damn good called \u201cGood,\u201d by the New Orleans trio Better Than Ezra. A band made for the 1990s, BTE had the party sound of a frat house but songs with added depth to make them memorable. The major label release of Deluxe<\/em> (originally independently released in 1993), the album \u201cGood\u201d was on, also included \u201cIn the Blood\u201d and \u201cRosealia\u201d and \u201cPorcelain,\u201d one of my favorite songs from the band. Friction, Baby<\/em> which came out in \u201996 included the raucous \u201cKing of New Orleans\u201d and \u201cDesperately Wanting\u201d.<\/p>\n

This band was not a one-hit wonder.<\/p>\n

But like many bands, BTE faded a bit and you didn\u2019t hear much about them. There was a legal fight with the departing drummer and a drop from the major label in 1999. The release of Before the Robots<\/em> in 2005 sent them on tour, which opened up the opportunity to see them in West Palm Beach.<\/p>\n

I went with my wife Kristen and our good friends Donna and Greg to see them at West Palm\u2019s Carefree Theater, a movie house which could convert ably to a music hall (though the seating was only so-so). West Palm had few places to see a band like this, more often you\u2019d go to Fort Lauderdale or Miami to see a show of such capacity, so it was a nice opportunity to see a band close to home.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect \u2014 you don\u2019t know if a band wants to play all its new stuff, resenting the music that made them famous a decade earlier. But Better Than Ezra wasn\u2019t like that at all \u2014 they were not only better than expected, they were great.<\/p>\n

An audience knows when a band is having fun, and feels fortunate to still be playing music in front of a crowd. This might not have been a crowd of 7,500 that came to see them in the \u201990s, but the 750 there that night got a show. Lead singer Kevin Griffin and guitarist Joel Rundell were active and spirited, cranking out songs with a high-level of excitement. The band wasted little time playing \u201cGood\u201d (it was the second or third song I believe), which I thought odd until I saw how the audience reacted. It was clearly a song people wanted to hear, and by playing it early there was no anticipation of when it was to come \u2014 making the rest of the set somewhat of a surprise. Smart these boys are.<\/p>\n

\u201cKing of New Orleans\u201d was a treat, as was \u201cBeautiful Mistake,\u201d \u201cExtra Ordinary\u201d and \u201cAt the Stars\u201d. What pushed the show into memorable territory was when the band went off script \u2014 doing a rocking version of the James song \u201cLaid,\u201d or bringing someone onstage to play the cowbell. Of course the problem with audience participation is running the risk of bringing a dud on stage, and despite the chance to go cowbell crazy when the band started to play \u201c(Don\u2019t Fear) The Reaper,\u201d the guy they chose downplayed his chance to shine like a rock star. Greg and I agreed we would have done a much better job with the cowbell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Blood\u201d and \u201cDesperately Wanting\u201d came near the end of the show, wrapping up a fine night of good music. I have the sense if I saw BTE today, they\u2019d be just as good live \u2014 some bands are like that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 2005, Carefree Theater, West Palm Beach, Fla. There are songs which define parts of our lives because they were everywhere at the time \u2014 and face it not all of these songs are good, or at least not songs you ever want to hear again. Growing up in South Florida it is impossible to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-better-than-ezra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions\/829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}