I was nineteen the first time I saw Better Than Ezra. I was a sophomore in college and they were touring behind How does your garden grow. It was an epic show that ended with them playing an acoustic set in the parking lot because the sound in the venue was terrible. I feel in love with Kevin, Tom, and Travis and have been a BTE junkie ever since.
On Saturday night, I saw Better Than Ezra for the ninth time at the Pageant. Nine times of seeing one band over eleven years seems staggering, right?
The long and short of it is, I'm not as young as I used to be. And, honestly, neither is BTE.
The biggest change to the band is new drummer, Michael Jerome, who made his StL debut on Saturday night. Travis McNabb, the band's long-time drummer, left the band to tour with Sugarland. Jerome, who certainly has mad drumming skillz, brings a different flavor to the band. McNabb's larger-than-life persona and tendency toward the flashy were replaced by Jerome's understatedness. In my mind, it moved BTE from feeling like a trio toward feeling like a duo with a touring keyboardist and drummer.
The band opened with Turn on the bright lights, the hallmark of how far the band has come in the 20 years they've been making music. A mid-tempo rock song, Turn on the bright lights is a 'nothing special' kind of tune that gets new life breathed into it when played live. For whatever you can say about how lame Better Than Ezra has become, you can hardly question their skills at playing live. They have the audience in the palm of their collective hand from the first note to the last chord.
The first three songs featured a very distracted Kevin. He was having problems with the amp, and he flat out didn't sing about 1/3 of Misunderstood. I would've preferred that they stop the show for a minute rather than this half-assed attempt to keep the show going despite technical difficulties.
The band finally got its act together and played an impressive show filled with songs from Paper Empire, some older hits, and some quirky covers. I would've preferred more songs from How does your garden grow and Closer, but a die hard fan always leaves wanting more, right?
All in all, BTE has lost a half-step over the past few years, but proved they can still get a crowd up and moving.
Set list:
Turn on the bright lights
Good
Misunderstood
All in
Extraordinary feat. Sexy Back (cover--Justin Timberlake)
Absolutely still
King of New Orleans
Sincerely Me
Get you in
Live again
Boom boom pow interlude feat. Michael Jerome's drumming
Nightclubbing
Laid (cover--James song)
Juicy feat. Miss You (cover--Rolling Stones)
Desperately wanting
Encore 1 (just Kevin--acoustic):
Jolene (cover--Ray LaMontagne)
Porcelain
Encore 2 (entire band):
Just one day
Let my love open the door (cover--Pete Townsend)
In the blood feat. Song 2 (cover--Blur)
