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IN THIS ISSUE:
Mardi Gras! Who's That Girl? Fan Profile News & Links Map of Ezra TTPY Hall of Fame Archives
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GETTING INTIMATE WITH BTE
The Wednesday through Saturday Super Bash events drew a melee of thousands of rockabilly punksters, country and western hillbillies, and rock ‘n' roll hipsters, but only a handful of local family and friends on Sunday. Almost 150 people turned out to see the headlining act, BTE, play in a makeshift tent over a parking lot with the capacity of more than a couple thousand.
Houston was one big party for the week leading up to the Super Bowl, culminating in a massive downtown party of celebrities, sports fans, and even "Hef" hosting an exclusive Playboy Party at one of the venues. The Super Bash was a party of close to 50 bands from around the US playing all day long from Wednesday to Sunday. Headliners included Eve 6, Los Lonely Boys, Sammy Hagar, Roger Creager, Jesse Dayton, Blue October, Vallejo, Reverend Horton Heat, and our very own BTE.
Saturday night proved the Super Bash to be the place to be in Houston, as the crowd swelled to maximum capacity for Eve 6 and Sammy Hagar. When Sunday came along, though, most all the H'Town crowd was either hung over from the night before, or concentrating on their tailgaiting activities. But the few, the proud, the Ezralites came out in full force for the 4:20 pm to 5:30 set of Kevin and the gang. With so few people in the crowd, staking my fiancé's claim with my regular football stance wasn't necessary as it usually is at BTE concerts. The fans were up close and personal by the stage. As BTE walked on the stage, they looked at each other with a crazed, strange grin on their faces. I bet they were thinking, "Is that it? Is that everyone out there?" |
Nevertheless, "Recognize" made the few fans go ape crazy and made the band realize that with so few people in attendance, they had pretty much free reign over what they could do. A standard short play list ensued, with the basics like "King of New Orleans," "Rosealia," "A Lifetime," "Rolling," "Extra Ordinary," and many more. Needless to say, even though the assembled Ezralites had heard these songs played several times, the show was still as wonderful as ever. The band took liberties due to the small crowd. They added hilarious antics like Kevin doing his rendition of the "Mariah Carey school of singing." The tent they were playing in had a big screen projection at the top of the tent televising the CBS game day hype, so the band decided to have some fun "playing" around with this scenario. While Kevin was making introductions, he shouted, "Sammy Hagar doesn't have shit on us!" to get a response from the fans. Travis immediately started the drum riff for Hagar's "Can't Drive 55." Tom continued on the bass, and after prompting (and hilarious laughter) from the crowd, Kevin began to mimic the song as well. What a hoot!
I thought that was the last of the follies, but one song later, the big screen again caught Kevin's attention. Aerosmith was playing the pre-game show in the stadium. There was no sound to their performance because of the bands playing in the tent, so Kevin and the gang quickly tried their hand at a cover of "Walk this Way." I kid you not? My cheekbones and those of the other fans were sore from laughing so hard. We loved it. Kevin did an awesome job of Steven Tyler's voice, however inaudible and hilarious it was. The crowd was laughing, trying to glance simultaneously from Kevin to the big screen and back. The show was a short set because the guys had to finish playing before the game got underway. But with some room to breathe, the guys put on great show. We all had a blast. Afterwards, everyone went his or her separate way, most likely to watch what was a great Super Bowl game. Cheers to BTE and the few, the proud, the Ezralites of Houston. Whoop ? Mikey. Props to Mikey for stepping up and volunteering to do this review. We hope he'll be a repeat contributor to the Serenade.
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