This may have been the first time that I had seen Better Than Ezra perform live. I know that in 1995, their album Deluxe was on constant rotation for me. While their hit single from this album, “Good”, hit the charts – I fell in love with some of the more reflective songs on the album, such as, “Heaven” and “This Time of Year”. In 2005, Better Than Ezra released, Before the Robots which featured songs that I still consider favorites: “Our Last Night” and “Breathless”.

Despite having listened to their songs all throughout college, I managed to miss their live performances until this past Friday night. Better Than Ezra stopped by Baltimore Soundstage and reminded me of how lucky I was to be a teenager in the 90’s.

There were several highlights of Thursday night’s performance. First, front man, Kevin Griffin acknowledged a fan who had reached her “100th Better Than Ezra” show that evening. He asked me to take her photograph and had the audience put their hands in the air. There are a few bands that I love much as this girl (obviously) loves Better Than Ezra, so I totally appreciated how awesome this was.

Another great thing about this performance was how the band had fun on the stage and continually interacted with the fans. It felt like we were all there seeing our friend’s band play at the bar down the street; except for the fact that these friends have a platinum album and several top of the chart hits. The entire night, Griffin joked with the crowd, told stories, and made us all feel like we were part of the show. He reminisced over the band’s years playing in Baltimore and gave a shout out to Hammerjacks and Jimmy’s Chicken Shack.

To add to this “band next door” vibe, Better Than Ezra filtered in some fun covers to the set-list. Griffin joked saying “If you’re American, you won’t resist singing the chorus of this song by a Norwegian band” then broke into “Take on Me”. This got a laugh out of the crowd – as well as – a complete audience sing-a-long. He also demonstrated how awesome the A minor chord is with a cover of Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”. And, they performed their cover of James’ hit single, “Laid” (which, coincidentally, I was covering James a few days after this show). Of course, they treated their fans to long-time favorites such as “Good” and “Desperately Wanting”. However, they also performed songs they don’t play live very often (which happen to be my favorites): “Our Last Night” and “Beautiful Mistake”.

I thoroughly enjoyed this show last Friday. I appreciated how these guys made everyone in the room feel welcomed and part of the show. The covers that they performed kept things fun and exciting, and I was very happy to hear some songs that they don’t play very often. They are wrapping up their 2019 Summer Tour; however, definitely get out to see Better Than Ezra when they return.