Summerland w/Everclear

Back at the Moody Theater (http://acl-live.com) on the hottest day of 2013 yet, for another show. With The Moody Theater now doing tours of their gorgeous facility, you have to take a moment and go absorb some of the amazing music memorabilia that is on display. I am glad they are doing this and you will be too.

What a great day and place for the Summerland Tour 2013. The brain child of Art Alexakis (from Everclear) featuring some if the best alternative rock band of the early '90's. Sponge, Filter, Live, and of course Everclear, all made up the bill. All of the bands were not only monsters in their time, but currently are in the process of doing new things, including a new album or two, so this tour makes sense on multiple levels. Another great thing about a tour like this is the experience, you get the non stop hit songs and energy from all of theses band and the music just seems to be non stop. With very little time between sets, you barely have time to go pee, much less grab a drink before the next band is up on it again. Alex was the epitome of a great host and MC, introducing each band along with an explanation and what the upcoming band meant to him and Everclear.

Sponge (http://spongetheband.com) was first up for the evening. After being introduced by Alex, as the band who taught Everclear how to be gentlemen on the road, Sponge proceeded to light up the audience. The lead singer was sporting the biggest damn rope chain I have ever seen and the guitarist and bass player where just having a great time. Although the house wasn't packed when Sponge launched into their set. Those in attendance got every drop of energy these guys had to offer! Wrapping up with their hit song 'Plowed', it was exactly what you wanted.

Alex reappeared on stage, gave some quick props to Sponge and then introduced Filter (http://www.officialfilter.com) as the band that taught Everclear how to be ROCKSTARS on the road. It was the same formula for Filter here, hard and fast. Knocking through their songs with hardly any chatter except for a little story about 'Take A Picture'. Before their final song, the lead singer of Filter thanked Austin,  professed his love for Austin, and asked if Filter came back to headline their own tour, would we let them do it again? Hell yes! 'Hey man nice shot' ended the set appropriately.

For the last intro of the night before his turn up Alex, with a "holy shit, I just saw their set list and its nothing but hit songs", brought out LIVE (http://www.freaks4live.com) AND THEIR SET WAS JUST THAT....LIVE! The quote from Mariza about this set was simply this, 'Oh my God that was the best performance of the night!' Just doing one hit song onto of the next was almost

overwhelming. Clean, sharp, and pretty damn powerful. Their was a quick apology from the lead singer about being sick, but that wasn't felt on the audience side of the music. Playing 'Lakini's juice' very early in the set, then shortly thereafter rolling into 'Lightning crashes', was nothing when 'Selling the drama' ended having a montage of almost everyone on stage from the tour.

Out strolled the lead guitarist from LIVE, after thanking Alex for the tour he introduced Everclear (http://everclearonline.com/home.html). Coming out on stage and having the amps cranked to #11, Everclear just did everything they could to throttle our ears. It was undoubtedly the most energetic and powerful set of the evening. Hearkening back to their roots and almost having that punk feel to the music, Everclear jumped into one of my favorites early on, 'Heroine girl'...it was fucking awesome to see and hear that song live! Just bad ass! A few songs later out came 'Father of mine' as his tribute to single moms everywhere.  It just powered on from there. 

Can't wait to see what gets cooked up for Summerland '14. Enjoy the photos'til then.

Laters