It’s almost a week after the 44th annual Super Bowl and the Saints have won. The crowd stands anxiously in a dark room chanting “Who Dat?” Shadows move across the stage and a spotlight focuses on a man dressed in an elaborate mask and boa while sitting at a drum set. In three, two, one he starts a beat, and all stage lights turn on and black, gold, purple and green confetti shoot out from either side of the stage. It’s the House of Blues and Better than Ezra decides to celebrate.
As Kevin Griffin, lead vocalist, starts singing, “Good” the crowd screams a couple more “Who Dats?” before abandoning their chant to follow along the 1995 debut single. Having been warmed up by Howie Day and the excitement of Mardi Gras parades from the night before, the crowd is ready. As they sing along, hands desperately reach out to grab the Mardi Gras beads, doubloons, and frisbees the band members are tossing. Griffin stops halfway through the third song to ask how everyone’s Mardi Gras is so far. The crowd reacts with passionate shouts, whistles and more Saint’s chants. Then arbitrarily he tells bassist Tom Drummond to turn on the chorus of the Saints touchdown theme song “Halftime (Stand Up and Get Crunk).” The band dances and the audience is in a frenzy.
Returning to their own music, Better than Ezra plays a mix of old songs from albums including Friction, Baby and Closer to new songs from Paper Empire, released last May. Throughout the concert, they work the audience, stopping between or even mid-song to give shout outs and to recognize drummer Michael Jerome’s one year anniversary with the band. Griffin said Taylor Swift did a cover of their song “Breathless” for Hope for Haiti, and pleased the crowd with a drunken anecdote from their alma mater Louisiana State University.
While the devices stay the same, the details are updated. Several times they played mash-ups of covers and Better than Ezra originals, the funniest being “Desperately Wanting” and Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face”. When the women in the crowd primarily reacted to that, Griffin and Drummond complimented all the “sexy ladies of N’awlins.”
“This is the only city I can shout out, ‘Bend over and show me that tramp stamp!’ and still get good reactions,” Griffin said.
Still riding off the energy from playing the Super Bowl afterparty for the Saints players themselves, it’s no wonder the band was full of love for their audience. Whether it was the feel of their sequined masks or the draft beers Griffin downed by the end of the show, it was clear the only ones who enjoyed the concert more than the crowd was the band itself.
