Everclear @ The Gov, Adelaide 4/10/2017
For a lot of us Everclear were a big part of our soundtrack to our youth and particularly for me my memories of this great band goes way back to 1996. On that very first tour they supported the mighty Silverchair and the show which was supposed to take place on the Barr Smith Lawns at the University of Adelaide was washed out and later moved to Thebarton Theatre – good times! Fast forward to 2017 and Everclear are playing The Gov and playing one of their career shaping albums So Much For The Afterglow in all its splendour from start to end.
The band looked sharp decked out in black suits and whilst the line-up has changed a little over the years main stay Art Alexakis led the charge with Freddy Herrera (Bass), Dave French (Guitar), and Jake Margolis (Drums) ready and pumped for a big show. There was no real surprise as far as the majority of the set list goes being focused on Afterglow. Alexakis ask the band to “line ‘em up” and get in to side one and what a start with So Much For The Afterglow and Everything To Everyone in quick succession. The band were in really great spirits feeding off the energy of the crowd. So many hits early in the set with the likes of Buy You A New Life and Father Of Mine which was dedicated to his daughter who was in the crowd and he mentioned he couldn’t swear because she was here.
There was a brief pause where Alexakis explained that they couldn’t get out of Australia without playing songs from Sparkle And Fade as people would probably kills us.. He went on to say that they’re a band from Portland that got successful, people thought they would fail and called us a one hit wonder but as Alexakis reaffirmed don’t piss off a song writer which inspired the song One Hit Wonder. Towards the end of side one there was a brief water fight on stage which looked a bit of fun with Alexakis saying “I’m dead later”.
As a brief break from the Afterglow album it was full throttle with three songs from Sparkle & Fade featuring the infamous Heroin Girl, Heartspark Dollarsign and You Make Me Feel Like A Whore. Then it was side two of Afterglow and there are some interesting songs that don’t often get played live so it was a rare chance for fans to be able to hear them. Sunflowers is one of those songs and so to was Why I Don’t Believe In God which was dedicated to his mother and the late Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. Interestingly the last song of the main set Like A California King was actually written in Adelaide and played to the band at the airport back in 1996 but never actually played in Adelaide until now.
The band returned for an encore with the first song Strawberry played acoustically by Alexakis and one of those songs that “if we don’t play this in Australia I will get my arse kicked”. Local God was awesome and Australia was the only country where the song was a single and a hit. Wonderful was exactly that and the show closer Santa Monica was a sensational finish to a great night. Hats off to the band who came out to meet the fans, take photos and sign autographs for the fans.
Review by Rob Lyon