Everclear brings mediocrity to Detroit

While people may certainly fault Everclear for its often redundant and uninspired music, most people would also agree that the band's songs are damn catchy. In its Thursday night show at St. Andrew's, Everclear presented its entire spectrum of similar sounding songs, complete with a light show that would make Pink Floyd blush.

REVIEW
	Everclear Nov. 6, 1997 St. Andrew's Hall

The evening contained a fairly decent mix of old and new material, predominantly drawn from the band's two Capitol-released albums, 1997's "So Much For the Afterglow" and 1995's "Sparkle And Fade." The band even managed to include a few numbers from its Tim/Kerr debut, "World of Noise."

Unlike most bands, Everclear didn't begin the show with one of its hit singles. Instead the group played "So Much For the Afterglow," the first track on the just-released album of the same name. Everclear continued with songs off of "Sparkle and Fade" - "Electra Made Me Blind" and the classic love ballad, "You Make Me Feel Like a Whore." Fulfilling the debut album requirement, the band played "Nervous and Weird," as well as a song that merely sounds like it belongs on "World Of Noise," the new "Fire Maple Song"-esque, "Like A California King."

Everclear gave an unoriginal performance Thursday at St. Andrew's Hall.

The rest of the show was no surprise to Everclear fans. Art Alexakis took time away from the band to play a number of acoustic pieces, not unlike the solo acoustic tour that came through Pontiac last year. Featured songs in this short set came mainly from "Sparkle and Fade." These included "Strawberry," the racial tension-filled "Heartspark Dollarsign" and "My Sexual Life." The band then returned with more grinding grunge guitars to perform its first singles, the punky "Heroin Girl" and "Santa Monica," along with new material including "Father Of Mine" and "I Will Buy You A New Life."

Fans were kept waiting through the entire show before they were treated to the current single "Everything To Everyone," which appeared as an encore at the very end of the performance. Of course, by the time the band got around to playing this radio staple, many people had tired of the band's uninspired performance. Despite the appearance of touring guitarist Steve Birch and the addition of an extra drummer, Everclear lacked the expected energy. Furthermore, the lighting on the stage drew attention away from the band with its hot bursts of blinding light. The audience could barely make out the band much less look at the group for longer than a minute without permanent eye damage.

Overall, the show was an accurate projection of Everclear's recordings. The group's music is often lacking in originality and its live performance did little to amend for this fact. Like the band's songs, the show was merely average. But, as average does not equal disappointing, this show was a solid straight-ahead effort for a solid, yet uninspired rock band.

11-10-97