Everclear @ Fowlers, 7th May ’15
It’s hard to believe that it has been almost eighteen years since the last time Everclear toured Australia and given the issues encountered last time I’m not surprised but front man Art Alexakis says he has no bad memories of the country and would return if a tour was viable.
This tour was a big one for me after the show in Adelaide in 1996 got rained out and moved to Thebarton Theatre. With a reduced capacity I wasn’t far enough up the line to get in before the venue reached capacity. Alas, they returned! Thank god!
Support act The Motive were a real find on the night and I was really impressed with their songs and how they rocked out their live set. Their new EP is one to seek out and I will be itching to have another look sometime soon.
The wait for Everclear seemed like an eternity with sound crew trying to navigate the challenges of the acoustics in Fowlers which was something they never got quite right all night taking a lot away from the performance. Given that Art’s in ear monitor wasn’t working you could see his frustration knowing that the mix sounded average at best. The focus of the show was the classic album Sparkle And Fade playing it from start to end. So really there were no surprises for the majority of the set.
Opening with Electra Made Me Blind, Art stopped mid song saying “thanks for having us back Adelaide, you rule”. It was rocker Heroin Girl that got the crowd jumping and rock moments don’t get any better than their classic Santa Monica which Art mentioned that it was unusual for it to be played so early in the set then asking for the crowd’s help to sing-a-long. I usually hate those sort of things but the crowd sounded bloody great.
Strawberry was another unofficial anthem, for the “old school” Sparkle And Fade fans, off that album and was great to hear that one again. In terms of singles there were only a couple more by way of Heartspark Dollarsign and You Make Me Feel Like A Whore which were both well received. For a lot of people like me that album was on constant rotation and still is and there were some hidden gems which awesome to hear again including the likes of Pale Green Stars and Chemical Smile.
After a quick break then returning for the first of two encores it was all about the hits with So Much For The Afterglow and Everything To Everyone. Art said to the crowd that he wanted to return for eighteen years before ripping through Father Of Mine. There was a taster from the new album Black Is The New Black and as Art said it is dedication to himself, lame he acknowledged, which was titled The Man Who Broke His Own Heart.
Returning for a second encore it was the reflective I Will Buy You A New Life dedicated to Art’s wife wrapping things up with a tune off the Romeo & Juliet Soundtrack called Local God.
It was a real shame that the sound problems took a lot away from their performance as I thought the band were in pretty good form. Hopefully it won’t take another eighteen years to come back.
Whether it is rummaging through vinyl at record stores such as Clarity and Title finding hidden gems to scouring the internet to find that album by the next big thing or chasing bands to get that elusive autograph and photo his passion is music all the way.
- Aversions Crown - January 27, 2017
- Sick Of It All - January 19, 2017
- Refused - January 11, 2017
