“Party with us? The silver guys?” Art Alexakis replied to a yelling fan on Wednesday night at downtown Clearwater’s Bilheimer Capitol Theatre. “That sounds like such a bummer.”
The main creative force behind Everclear is no stranger to bummers, either. Addiction as a teenager, a semi-recent MS diagnosis, four marriages (with the fourth time seemingly being the charm), and most recently, nearly losing his home in this year’s Pasadena fires. He addressed those topics during his banter at his first Clearwater show in four years, and yet with a third of his songs being semi-autobiographical and about some not-so-great times, Alexakis has managed to find a healthy, reasonable way of allowing his adversities to be a part of his life, without letting them define who he is.
The 30th anniversary of when his alt-rock project’s name started making its way into American households—upon the release of sophomore album Sparkle and Fade—is being celebrated this year, with the plan being to perform the record in its entirety, and a few hits mixed in. Let’s be real: It’s a 42-minute album, and even with said extra songs mixed in, just under an hour and a half goes by really fast with Everclear circa 2025 in the room. And as you can imagine, the tour is probably the least flashy ‘90s nostalgia gig on the road right now…