The Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ was treated to a night of nostalgia, laughter, and one great night of music. The Wallflowers and Better Than Ezra performed to an overexcited crowd on Saturday night. Better Than Ezra kicked the night off with their 1996 single “King Of New Orleans” with the audience singing back every word. Through their 15 song set, Better Than Ezra’s frontman Kevin Griffin joked about taking everyone to New York in their bus and walking into the local comic book store in Montclair to kids playing Dungeons and Dragons with the band Rush playing over the speakers. This lead to Better Than Ezra playing snippets of Rush songs then into their song “Limelight”. There were other covers played like a melody of Sublime, “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz, “Rapper’s Delight”, and “OPP”. The overall mood of Better Than Ezra was just to have fun on stage and also make sure everyone else was too. For a band being around for almost 30 years, Better Than Ezra sure do know how to still have fun.
The Wallflowers have been quiet during the years, but during the summer months they have recently started touring. Last year was a co-headlining tour with Blues Traveler while this year it has been with Better Than Ezra on some dates and Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac on others. A band with few words on stage, The Wallflowers perform each of their songs flawlessly. Of course most of the songs are off Bringing Down The Horse, but it is always nice to hear songs from their other albums like “Love Is A Country” and “Closer To You” which did get some stage time in Montclair. The rest of the set is filled with covers from influential artists like Sam Cooke and Big Joe Williams, with opening songs from Jakob’s solo material. It is always a curiosity as to what a Wallflowers song would sound like in the year 2017, it would by no means be bad. Their entire discography is something everyone should own, but as for new material, we may have to wait and wait some more, but hopefully not too long.
http://www.thewallflowers.com/
Favorite Sights & Sounds 