The band is touring to promote its upcoming album, "Before the Robots," due to be released May 31.
Lead singer Kevin Griffin said the new album is a combination of the sounds and textures from the band's last two albums, "Closer" and "How Does Your Garden Grow."
Simply put, Griffin said, "I think if you like Better Than Ezra then you're really going to like it. If you never liked Better Than Ezra, you probably won't like it."
That's good news for Better Than Ezra fans.
The first single from the new album, titled "Lifetime," was actually recorded on the band's last album, "Closer," but the label that produced the album went bankrupt and the single was never released.
In the production of "Before the Robots," Griffin said the band was encouraged by its friends in radio to rerecord "Lifetime" and release it as a single.
"On a whim we decided to rerecorded it," Griffin said. "It was a little faster, little more rock. We redid it and we thought, 'You know it's a great song, we need to give it a shot.'"
The music video for "Lifetime" is currently one of the top picks on VH1.
During a typical show, Griffin said the band plays five or six songs from its new album, but enjoys playing the older songs as well.
"I don't get it when bands say they don't want to play their old songs," Griffin said. "Our old songs have been good to us."
Griffin said the band tries to open with a different song each night.
"We try to keep each night's set different," Griffin said, adding that there are certain ways to go about creating the set list for the night.
"You have the hallmarks of your show - these three songs in a row they work together as far as pacing goes," Griffin said. "The set has to be paced well. We come out with some up-tempo songs, then bring it down, but if you're not careful you can have a few mid-tempo songs in a row and if one of them is a new song, that's an easy way to lose people."
To most, the creation of a set list sounds complicated, scientific even - but not for Griffin.
"It's not- it's rock 'n' roll," Griffin said. "Just like anything, you learn how to do something right, a set list is something you learn from experience."
But set list can change during the show if Griffin feels the audience isn't responding.
"If I'm sensing that it's not time to do the long ballad, then maybe I'll just go on to 'Good' and the guys follow me," Griffin said. "I don't always make the perfect decision on the fly, but you get to where you can accurately judge where the set should go."
Better Than Ezra first hit the scenes in the late '80s when they released a couple small, self-produced demo projects. The first label-produced album was "Deluxe." which was produced by an independent label first, then reissued by Elektra two years later. The single from that album, "Good" reached the top of the Billboard charts.
Elektra produced two more albums for the band, "Friction, Baby" in 1996 and then "How Does Your Garden Grow" in 1998.
Griffin said Elektra eventually went bankrupt and then the label they signed up with after Elektra also went bankrupt. The band is now with Artemis Records.
Griffin said there is hardly any difference these days between independent and corporate record labels.
"Artemis is considered independent though its finances come from a larger company," Griffin said. "Now the playing field has really changed, so many bands like Jack Johnson and Better Than Ezra are doing great on smaller labels."
In the band's experience, its creative freedom has been consistent with its label changes.
"We had plenty of artistic freedom on Elektra," Griffin said, adding that some musicians talk about being constrained artistically, but that hasn't been the case with Better Than Ezra. "We've always had the same amount of artistic freedom."
San Jose is just one stop in the West Coast leg of the band's tour, and while traveling can be tiresome for the band, Griffin wouldn't have it any other way.
"Sometimes it's easy when you've been going and going and going and you've got morning shows and an afternoon meet and greet in a conference room over bagels, to start thinking of it was a chore," Griffin said. "Then you think of the alternative. The minute I start saying 'This is a real pain in the ass,' (I) get a wake up call and realize it's better than nine to five any day. I almost went to law school after college and I'm so glad I didn't."
The concert starts at 7 p.m. Friday at Zoe's Nightclub. Tickets at the door are $20 each, $15 if purchased in advance.