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This article is from the July 6, 2001 edition of the Wichita Eagle. Everclear, warm-up bands rock Wichita
By Alan Bjerga About one-third of the way through Everclear's set, Art Alexakis paused. The pause was part of "Song from an American Movie," but it was longer than usual. Guitar problems. And that wasn't all. The volume was way too loud for the July 4 headline band, turning vocals into thunder and plowing 20 minutes of speed-punk Everclear songs into head-bang monotony. The pause worked. The song started again. And Everclear's buzz-saw guitars rang in harmony, and Alexakis' lyrics, some of modern rock's most honest, came through like they hadn't all night. And for the next hour, the small, know-all-the-words, fireworks-spurning crowd received one hour of the best live rock they will ever experience. Because Everclear, along with American Hi-Fi, Mayfield Four and Flipp, delivered fully on what may be the best capital-R Rock tour coming through Wichita this summer. "The last time I was in Wichita I was in the hospital," Alexakis said at the beginning of Everclear's set. The Portland trio, augmented to six for the summer tour, canceled its part of the Matchbox Twenty/Lifehouse tour that reached the Kansas Coliseum last March. The more intimate Cotillion is better suited for their stripped-down, power-punk energy. The heart of their set, which included recent singles "A.M. Radi." and the sing-along "Wonderful" along with workhorse hits from earlier albums like "Santa Monica," built the "crowd" into a steamed-up frenzy, capped by an encore of "Rock Star" and a cover of David Bowie's "Suffragette City" that made lights-up come way too early. (Crowd is defined loosely here. The Cotillion floor had enough empty space for a teen-ager in American flag bellbottoms to play hacky-sack with two friends during the show. Way to show that Midwest respect, dudes.) But until the start-over on "American Movie," Everclear was in danger of being upstaged by American Hi-Fi, which after years in the college-radio wasteland is finally gaining mainstream attention with the single "Flavor of the Weak." Lead singer Stacy Jones's Peter-Frampton-meets-Noel-Gallagher persona, combined with big-guitar bombast, threatened to steal the show from Everclear, which doesn't have much monster-rock sound aside from its singles. Mayfield Four, preceding American Hi-Fi, offered another amalgam -- Foo Fighters meets the Who. If frontman Myles Kennedy's Dave Grohl looks and windmill kicks didn't solidify the tag, the set-ending cover of "Baba O'Reilly" did. Flipp was an incongruity, a glam band on a mostly unpretentious bill. But all four bands turned in solid shows, making Independence Day at the Cotillion a celebration of rock's freedom (though thankfully not Freedom Rock). Rock is a genre where noise can melt into subtlety, and a devil sign can mask pain. And though it seemed in doubt at the beginning of their set, Everclear straddles the line between the pop and the profound as few bands can. Over its 90-minutes, Everclear proved that. As long as love doesn't work out how it's supposed to, and as long as people smile through the tears even when everything isn't wonderful, rock will have a place for Everclear. And Wichita's lucky that on July 4, the Cotillion was that place. |