Kasasa Rocks brings N.O. band to Houma for free show

It’s been more than 20 years, but New Orleans-based band Better than Ezra is still rockin’.

And luckily for music junkies in the area, their tour will rock ‘n’ roll all the way to Downtown Houma June 18 at the Courthouse Square for Kasasa Rocks.

The show is scheduled to start at 8 p.m., and if tradition holds, a good time will be in order when the band takes the stage.

“We just want people to come in and have a good time,” said vocalist and guitar player Kevin Griffin in a recent interview with the Mobile Press Register. “Let your hair down, because we’re certainly going to be dishing it out. So you better be ready to take it. And give it back.”

The band started as just a dream in 1988 when Griffin and a few classmates at Louisiana State University started playing in Baton Rouge bars and fraternity houses.

But the bar room dream started to become a Hollywood reality in 1993 when their second album, Deluxe, hit the stores. The release immediately reached as high as No. 35 on American charts, going platinum in the United States and gold in Canada.

Since Deluxe, the band has seen five other albums make waves on the United States charts, while also writing music for other musicians, such as Howie Day, David Cook and Blondie.

Griffin said recently in an interview with celebrity news Web site www.marieclaire.com, that the band has picked up new fans along the way, but he feels as though the core of the bands’ supporters are the same folks who first bought into the band at day one.

“I’d say the meat of it is fans what were fans in the 90s when we started off,” he said. “These people really support us and feel like we’re part of their lives and come to us and say, ‘Man, when you play that song, it reminds me of me and my girlfriend.’ … That’s the ultimate goal for a musician: to have a song be a part of someone else’s life.”

Fellow founding member for the band, Tom Drummond, agreed and said at some shows, he’s seeing the band’s popularity beginning to grow inside of individual families.

“Some of the people are starting to bring their kids,” Drummond said. “That’s how long we’ve been around, I guess. It’s really cool because if the parents are that into the band, and they start bringing their young kids to the show, they truly do love the band. As far as teens go, I think every time you have a new single, that’s who you’re hoping to get … But you can’t alienate the crowd you’ve brought with you for 20 years. You have to be true to them, too.”

There have been a few member changes along the way, but like Drummond, Griffin has been a lifer, and he said despite the band having 10 albums and more than a dozen released singles, it is the live shows that serve as the reason for the group’s prolonged success, which means the crowds in Houma are in for a treat.

“What’s accounted for our longevity is that people keep coming back to see us live,” Griffin said. “That’s what sustains any band that sticks around for a while, because you have your time where you’re on the radio and on television, but if you don’t have a live show that’s great, and that evolves and keeps changing, people won’t come see you.”

The band’s stop on the tour will be its third in what is a 10-show, nine-state tour stretching from Mississippi all the way to Nevada.

The music fans should expect to hear is all of the classics that made the band famous in the 1990s, as well as some of the group’s newest hits from their 2009 album, “Paper Empire.”

Griffin said he hopes the fans in attendance have as much fun watching the group as they will have performing.

“If it wasn’t our career, I’d be that guy playing every weekend,” he told the Mobile Press Register. “I love doing what I do. I love entertaining people, and I find something new or unique about every show.”