As you read in my last post, my Mardi Gras was pretty epic. The length of the holiday makes it possible, however, to have several epic experiences over the course of the five-day festival.
On Friday morning before Mardi Gras, I went on Facebook and learned that one of my favorite bands, Better Than Ezra, was going to be playing at the House of Blues. Recognizing this as an opportunity to cross something off the mighty Bucket List, I convinced my friend Cassady that it would be totally worth it to splurge on the $45 tickets and do something totally spontaneous, and see the concert after all of the Saturday parades. Turns out, she’s a bigger BTE fan than I am, so she was easily convinced.
There are usually three parades on the Saturday of Mardi Gras, but the evening parade got postponed to Sunday because of impending thunderstorms. Thanks to that, Cassady and I were able to spend the entire afternoon getting ready for the concert. At about 10 p.m., we headed downtown to the House of Blues for the show. We didn’t know it then, but the show was sold out, which made us feel smarter for making such a spontaneous decision.
I’d seen Better Than Ezra live once before, but this performance was even more amazing. The last time I’d seen them was at JazzFest in 2009, and I wasn’t as excited about it because I happened upon the performance while they were opening up for my favorite band ever, Dave Matthews Band. But the House of Blues show was incredible.
First of all, I got extra bucket list points for seeing them play at House of Blues. It was standing-room only, and the floor was packed with people of all ages (well, all ages 18+), so we were there with people our age and two to three times our age. Everyone was so excited and happy to be there, and some people took their extravagant Mardi Gras costumes to another level and came to the show dressed up as farm animals. The concert was the second night of Better Than Ezra’s two-night Krewe of Rockkus gig that they were doing over Mardi Gras, so they’d played another sold-out show the night before, and were super excited to play for another packed house. Everyone was so excited to be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and that excitement was felt throughout the show as Better Than Ezra played everyone’s favorite songs and sprayed confetti into the audience. They even invited a random guy to come up and play guitar with them. I bet they made his night, too. The spontaneity of the decision, and the amazing concert, made my epic Mardi Gras even better.