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Everclear
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....In some corners
of the rock world, Everclear is viewed like the Foo Fighters: a valiant holdout
from the alternative-rock heyday, crafting principled rock that still manages
to get played on MTV and otherwise vapid modern-rock radio. But for all of his
protestations of delivering pop with substance (i.e., songs about drug
addiction and divorce) with bandleader Art Alexakis. Everclear made it an
anthem with 1995's breakthrough hit "Heroin Girl." And then came
"Santa Monica," "Wonderful" and, recently, "Volvo
Driving Soccer Mom." It was the dawn of a new Everclear, a band that liked
the sound a radio makes when it's playing one of the band's songs, and had the
formula down pat for getting it done. Make no mistake, Everclear has made
alt-pop hits an art form - Art Alexakis-form, to be exact. The bleached-white
blond frontman for Everclear has a thing for the "na nas." They
literally make two of the group's biggest hits. On "Wonderful," a
steady stream of "nas" give the song its vocal hook, and on the first
single off Everclear's sixth album, "Slow Motion Daydream," it's the
compound "na na" repeated over the chorus that steers "Volvo
Driving Soccer Mom." When you hear them back-to-back - as was the case
Thursday night at the Famous Fillmore in San Francisco - it all seems quite
silly, and yet no one was laughing, and everyone was singing along. Everclear
has an awful lot of hits, and they almost all sound the same. Even the non-hit
"Learning How to Smile," performed in stripped-down fashion for the
first time ever, nicks the riff from "Santa Monica," which, of
course, nicks from Bruce Springsteen's "Fire." It never ends. Still,
the performance of "Learning How to Smile" was quite touching, as was
the insouciant "Strawberry" and brooding "Summerland," all
played during a mid-set spate. "Father of Mine," an overplayed radio
hit, got gilded with a tempo-shifting Greg Eklund drum solo and some serious
audience interactivity. Later, during the encore, Alexakis invited a fan
onstage to commandeer his guitar and play his part during "Santa
Monica." After goofing on the lanky apprentice for playing the riff too
slowly, "Johnny" - as the crowd would later chant - got it just
right, and Alexakis was free to roam the mini-risers on either end of the
stage. It was a hackneyed stunt - one that Green Day's been doing for years -
but it absolutely worked. Then Alexakis and bassist Craig Montoya - who earlier
in the encore played bass atop the shoulders of a burly fan - rummaged through
the crowd and invited two dozen fans onstage to prance around during a cover of
Cheap Trick's "Surrender." With Montoya on lead vocals, the band
ripped through a punk perfect version of the classic rock tune, thus ending a
whirlwind 90-minute set. Even though Alexakis sang earlier, "I'm just
learning to smile, that's not easy to do," it wasn't all that difficult
for him or anyone else Thursday night.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,By Randy Cohen
...... By Randy Cohen
.This is the Official Rock Publication Web Site All
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.Copyright © 2003
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EverclearSetlist:
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.. 2003....
