The Sound

The dream of the 90’s is alive in Everclear

By Joe Lawler

5/3/2017

Take a deep breath, calm down, and accept that the music from when you were in high school is now essentially oldies. For five years, mid-to-late-’90s upstarts Everclear hosted an annual Summerland Tour, featuring acts like the Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray, Live and Toadies. In 2017 Everclear is taking a break from Summerland to mark the 20th anniversary of “So Much for the Afterglow,” but Vertical Horizon and Fastball are along for the ride, so there’s still plenty of nintiestalgia to go around.

“I’m 55 today,” Everclear singer Art Alexakis said during a phone interview on his birthday. “So when I think of nostalgic stuff, my mind usually goes to the ’70s. But I just started hosting a radio show on SiriusXM where I get to go deep and find a lot of ’90s songs I haven’t heard in a long time, and that’s fun.

“But one of the things that helps fuel Summerland is a certain level of nostalgia. I think it’s healthy to connect again with those feelings and memories.”

Alexaskis and Everclear may be linked to the ’90s, but they did manage to overcome being slapped with the “one-hit wonder” label thanks to the success of “So Much for the Afterglow.” The band broke through in 1995 with the hit “Santa Monica,” and its success weighed heavily on the band members as they prepared to record a follow-up. Alexaskis even penned a song called “One Hit Wonder” for “Afterglow.”

“Everyone was saying we were going to be one-hit wonders,” Alexaskis said. “But we didn’t get signed on ‘Santa Monica.’ I hadn’t even written it when we got signed. I didn’t write it to be a hit; I just wrote a song that became a hit. People were saying ‘Everclear is a one-hit wonder,’ and I said, ‘How about ‘Fuck You’?” And the best way to say ‘Fuck you’ is through a song.”

The success of the singles “I Will Buy You a New Life” and “Father of Mine” probably ended up being the better “Fuck You” to naysayers.

Everclear is performing “Afterglow” in its entirety on this tour, along with a smattering of other songs. The album’s biggest hits come within the first six songs, which means it will be a front-loaded show. When Everclear did a 20th anniversary tour for “Sparkle & Fade” in 2015, the band played a few bars of “Santa Monica” early in the set, then reprised it at the end of the show.

Alexakis said the Summerland Tour will return; he just didn’t want to try to balance a 20th anniversary tour and a larger multi-band tour in the same season. After that, he plans to head into the studio for a new, non-Everclear album.

“I’m working on a solo record. Everything on it I’m going to play myself,” Alexakis said. “We’ll see how it goes, but if I want drums or keys on a song, I’ll have to play them. Otherwise, it would just be a glorified Everclear record. I pretty much do whatever I want with Everclear anyway, but this will be different.” ♦

NITEFALL ON THE RIVER 2017

May 18: Chase Rice, Jameson Rodgers (Brenton Skating Plaza)

May 25: Everclear, Vertical Horizon, Fastball (Brenton)

May 26: Hairball, Decoy (Simon Estes Amphitheater)

June 3: Euforquestra, The Maytags, Mr. Baber’s Neighbors (Simon Estes)

June 8: Cody Jinks, Ward Davis (Simon Estes)

June 9: Turnpike Troubadours, Charley Crockett (Simon Estes)

June 10: The Nadas, Tom Fuller Band (Simon Estes)

June 14: Drive-By Truckers, Pokey Lafarge (Simon Estes)

July 7: The Band Perry (Simon Estes)

July 22: Aaron Watson (Brenton)

July 22: Phillip Phillips, Marc Scibilia (Simon Estes)