Flipp/The Mayfield Four/American Hi Fi/Everclear
by: Dawn Greer

Submitted to Rolling Stone and Hit Parader

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Flipp was the opening band and went on way too early. They went on every night before 7pm, so unfortunately the band did not have as much crowd reaction as they should have. A lot more people need to see this band. They are highly amusing. Flipp catches the audience with their songs such as "Cock in Your Rock," "Mr. Potato Head," and "Hairdo" among others. The band has some similarities to various bands such as Faster Pussycat, the Ramones, Kiss, and Alice Cooper.

Flipp's stage presence and antics are highly abnormal. Let's describe the characters: Brynn Arens, singer/guitar player has bright yellow bleach blonde hair, his face is painted half white and half black with bright red lipstick on his face and he wears a black and white pinstriped suit. Freaky Useless, the bass player wears a black leather outfit and has a purple mohawk and has a jetpack on his back which shoots out flames during select songs. Chia Karaoke, guitar player is bald and wears big oversized sunglasses. Kilo Bale, the drummer has bright green hair and is reminiscent of Kurt Cobain from Nirvana.

Once Flipp hits the stage you can't help but laugh and clap along to their songs. The band definitely has crowd reaction. They bring up a girl onstage during one of their songs and she gets to play guitar and sing and Arens makes her a part of the set. Flipp is one band who we are sure to see a lot more of in the future. They are definitely a band you will want to check out if they come to your city. They just got signed to Art from Everclear's new label.

Flipp can always be seen watching the other bands and you can always get a chance to talk to them. They are really good to their fans. Be sure and buy their CD and check out www.flippcentral.com.

The second band of the evening The Mayfield Four took the stage and got the crowd all pumped up. The Mayfield Four have been through enormous changes over the past three years since their first CD was released on Epic Records. The band fired guitarist Craig Johnson and remained a threesome adding Alessandro Cortini to play guitar during the tour. The band also fired their former manager and changed producers and mixers to add a different type of sound for their second release "Second Skin."

The Mayfield Four was handpicked by Everclear to tour with them due to the fact that Art and Craig from Everclear grew up in Portland and the Mayfield Four were from Spokane and Seattle, pretty close to each other, so both bands knew each other before either of them were signed to a major label.

The Mayfield Four singer Myles Kennedy, who will be appearing in the upcoming movie Rock Star in September, hit the stage belting out songs from their Second Skin CD. He sang songs that caught the audiences eye such as "Sick and Wrong," "Lyla," "Loose Cannon," and their first single "Eden Turn the Page." The band also did a cover of the Who song "Baba O' Reily."

Bassist Marty Meisner and drummer Zia Uddin really put their all into every song. They looked a lot like they were their to make music and entertain the crowd. Meisner moved around a lot, and he and traveling guitarist Cortini made magic chemistry onstage together. It is always good to see band members smiling and communicating to the audience while they are playing. Uddin pounded the drums and his talents were fully spotlighted by the crowd's response. He looked like Animal from The Muppet Show.

Meisner and Uddin are a highly composed rhythm spectacle, and Kennedy steps up to the microphone and belts through his repertoire frequently reaching deep into his heart to find a note, his eyes constantly scanning the crowd.

One thing that set the Mayfield Four apart from the other bands was that they always came out after their set and signed autographs at their merchandise booth. They signed everything fans wanted and stayed until everyone who was there got an autograph. You did not have to win a contest or have a backstage pass to meet the band. The band always made sure to sign stuff no matter how tired they were. Too bad more bands don't follow suit, especially since it is the fans who support the band by buying tickets to the shows and CDs and merchandise.

The only complaint anyone could say about the Mayfield Four was some technical sound difficulties, but other then that the crowd surely got their fair share of hard core edgy rock and roll. A band that surely everyone will see more of in the future.

Next up in the evening was American Hi Fi. Boston based American Hi Fi had the crowd singing a long and waving their hands after the very first song. They have an amazing way of getting fans involved in their set. Most of the younger fans were there with their parents and you could tell people were there to see them.

Everyone waited to hear their single which has gotten tremendous amounts of airplay "Flavor of the Week." In addition to that song, the band played 45 minutes worth of music from their debut Island Records CD. Songs included "Surround," "Wall of Sound," "Scar," "I'm A. Fool," "Blue Day," "A Bigger Mood," "My Only Enemy," "Another Perfect Day," and "Don't Wait for the Sun."

Singer Stacy Jones and guitar player Jamie Arentzen look like they have been doing this band all of their lives. They mesh so well together. Add the bass playing of Drew Parsons and drumming of Bryan Nolan and you will have a band that will more then likely be doing their own headlining tour by the end of this year. The incredible energy this band displays onstage is what more bands need to imitate. The face gestures and the expressions combined with the powerful rhytym section are what sets this band apart. the band has massive potential. A fourty-five minute set is just not long enough. This band could play two hours and have a crowd wanting more.

The headlining band of the tour Everclear finally made their appearance and the audience went nuts. This is what the crowd was waiting for all night long. Basically Everclear has been around for quite some time and has many hit songs, which the audience really wanted to hear. They started out playing newer songs and then went into old and new favorites such as " AM Radio", "Wonderful", "Rockstar", "You Make Me Feel Like A Whore", "Strawberry", "Everything to Everyone", "I Will Buy You A New Life", "Father of Mine", among many.

The audience was in for quite a surprise when Criag Montoya, the bass player hit the stage....he was sporting a brand new red mohawk, courteousy of his tourmate Freaky Useless of Flipp. Still the audience was in awe at their set. Singer Art Alexakis and drummer Greg Eklund along with Montoya poured their energy into their hour and a half set.

The band got audience participation towards the end when they brought many people onstage and had them sing along. Alexakis actually was quite rude to this one girl. She had told him he had embarrassed her and he said something to her like "Bitch I don't care if I embarrassed you I am here to rock and roll." Still the audience did not mind and the show was a huge success.

Overall the bands were well worth the money people pay to see them. Four amazing bands and four bands who know how to rock a crowd.