June 3rd (that would be a Wednesday) I hiked my ass down the Whiskey Roadhouse to see Better than Ezra. I was a bit unsure how this was supposed to go down - I circled the casino grounds looking for any freaking sign that would indicate this is where you would enter to see a concert. No - every damn entrance was filled with shuffling elderly coming with their meager savings or going with the hollow desire to return with more pittance to offer.





I zigged around a cluster of them to find the tour bus, and parked out in the lot. Once inside the rent-a-cop was certain I needed to show my id or have it scanned - but the guy running the counter just waved me on. Ah.. okay. That was strange.

The opening act was hands down the second worst band I have ever heard. I had to search up the opening acts a second ago to even get a name - Jerry Cherry. The guy was a total douche who sang like he was stretching cats. His lyrics were banal and frankly the whole "I am a hipster from new york - look at this hottie playing a cello" didn't do it for me. Yes, he did have some cutie chick playing the cello - she was great - he was atrocious.

Hi, yeah, your stories were not interesting, the bass you kept bitching about was making you moderately tolerable, and no one cares about your vampire song. You are not Bob Dylan, you are not Connor Oberst, and you are not good. The only one more damning than you was Pey-lee-oh or who ever that was at the Waiting Room we caught and were kicked out for our group's contribution to the hipster.

Thankfully there were only five songs played and if there was a sixth I would have started booing.

Better than Ezra (BtE) hit the stage about 9.20pm and started out with Juicy by Lady Gaga. I knew we were in for a good show when they open up trying to make that piece of bubblegum crap fun. The continued with hits off their old stuff and their new. Griffen and company seemed genuine and happy they were on stage rocking out with a whole hell of a lot of their fans.

Their banter was funny; as was it "real". This wasn't a band going through the motions - they were doing it for real. At one point they were taking a breather and were asking how many people were from omaha there that night. The place blows up. Then they ask how many Council Bluff folk were there. Three people responded. BtE then declared the Whiskey Road house to be an extension of Omaha and Nebraska.

They threatened to play some Bright Eyes crap (to a room full of booos), and opted for some 311. Griffen then held up his crackberry and said he might just call 311 down to hang out and play. The place went bonkers. Fun shit. (no 311 by the way).

They ended about 11pm, came back on, and played for about another thirty minutes. The encore was quite a bit of their old stuff with random 80's covers.. Roxanne, tears for fears, and what not.

Hella good show with a band that is the real deal.

Next on the list is Toad the Wet Sprocket... I might hit up Candlebox in August as well.