Better Than Ezra has always been a better-than-average crowd pleaser. Even when the group was playing cover songs at frat houses, they always adapted to the will of their audience.
Who could blame them? In the late 1980s, Better Than Ezra's brand of sentimental alt-rock was still new, still edgy, and they were still students at Lousiana State. Who knew that in five years' time they'd be the talk of the industry, with a hit album, music videos and a horde of new fans filling giant coliseums to see them play?
Since then, the band's fortunes have waxed and waned (a too-familiar story in the music business). But long after the summer buzz of the group's two biggest songs -- "Good" and "In the Blood" -- had faded into the hazy annals of past pop success, a small group of extremely devoted fans kept the candle burning for a group that had brought a beacon of meaning into their lives. The Ezralites stood by the band even after the bitter personal disputes in 1996 that saw founding drummer Cary Bonnecaze leave the group forever. They even stayed true when his replacement, Travis McNabb, began to alter the band's sound. Through it all, the Ezralites stuck with them. As their vaguely biblical-sounding name suggests, these people are believers.
It's easy to understand the appeal of Better Than Ezra's music. It's personal. It's about relationships, love, heartbreak, happiness and loss. It's a tiny universe of young adulthood contained in a musical nutshell made of pure pop hooks.
Last year, the band released a new album, Closer (Beyond Records), featuring an entirely new batch of songs penned by vocalist Kevin Griffin (plus the input of such hip contributors as DJ Swamp, of Beck fame). Writing for the All Music Guide, Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it "the most natural and best record they've ever made." Closer, it was hoped, would establish a new direction for the trio -- and perhaps a new era for alternative pop music.
Even bolstered by their ever-present troupes of Ezralites, however, Better Than Ezra soon found their would-be masterpiece buried in the great tides of other albums flooding the available shelf space, and later the bargain bins, of music stores nationwide. To their credit, though, they never gave up. True professionals, they set their jaws and continued to play their music for festival crowds.
A lesser band might have opted to live off whatever song royalties and investments they'd made at the apex of their careers. But Better Than Ezra plays on, continuing to please thousands of listeners en route to a future that may hold much, much more. And in the meantime, you can bet that the Ezralites will be installed at the front of those festival crowds -- waiting.
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