Bands come and go. Members will also come and go but for Art Alexakis, lead singer for the band Everclear, he’s been able to keep the name and tradition alive for 30 years now.
To celebrate, he and his band will be embarking on an anniversary tour across the country along with two feature guest bands The Nixons and Fastball.
One of those stops will include a performance in Odessa at 7 p.m. Tuesday at The Ector Theatre.
“It’s exciting and gratifying,” Alexakis said in a phone interview. “I’m grateful that we’re all out doing this at our age. We bring a lot of energy to the show. We don’t go as hard as old as we are. But I got to say, the fire is in my belly to go out and play these songs. We’re bringing stuff back out that we haven’t played for a while. We’re just trying to invigorate jams for people to come and listen to and we’re pretty excited.”
Everclear started in Portland, Ore. in 1992 by Alexakis. The band has since enjoyed a lengthy career, with 11 studio releases, including four that have been certified gold or platinum and have sold over six million records and achieved 12 top 40 hit singles on mainstream rock, alternative and adult top 40 radio.
The band has also rereleased its 1993 full-length debut album “World of Noise.” The rerelease came out on June 10 and marked the first time the currently out-of-print album is available on all digital music streaming platforms.
The fully re-mastered edition features all 12 original tracks plus six bonus songs including the previously unreleased “Drunk Again” and an unreleased remix of “Nervous and Weird.”
“Nervous and Weird” was the band’s original demo tape.
“I made it as a demo where I recorded all the songs in I believe October or November 1992,” Alexakis said. “It’s fun to have. I found all these songs on the original tapes, buried back in my storage. I didn’t think we’d still have them, to be honest. I had to go get them converted to digital. It just sounded great.”
Alexakis believes that Tuesday’s concert will be the first one in Odessa for him.
“I love West Texas,” Alexakis said. “I don’t know if we’ve played in Odessa before. We’ve played in Midland. We’ve played in a lot of West Texas towns but I’m excited. I know we have fans there. People have been following us on Twitter.”
Everclear began following the demise of Alexakis’ old band Colorfinger.
Colorfinger was based in San Francisco, Calif. It was late 1991 when Alexakis would soon move to Portland, Ore.
“I met a girl on tour and she moved to San Francisco to live with me and got pregnant,” Alexakis said. “It then became obvious that we should move to Portland, Ore. because she had family there and I had family there. We went there and I tried to do the Colorfinger thing long-distance but I couldn’t do it. I just made the decision to do one more band and that’s it. I had all these new songs and I wanted to do something heavy and hard and emotional lyrically.”
Thus, Everclear started in April of 1992. The band originally consisted of Alexakis along with bass player Craig Montoya and drummer Scott Cuthbert.
The band started recording with limited funds. However, the band’s name grew and people took notice. It wasn’t until 1994 when the band was signed to Capitol Records
“It just caught on like wildfire,” Alexakis said. “In 1992, we had a hard time getting gigs because we weren’t clicking but after that, we started getting gigs and it was exciting. It was great to be a part of that. We toured regionally and toured nationally and finally in 1994, we signed a publishing deal and that turned into a bunch of offers for record deals. We signed with Capital in 1994 and that’s where it all started.”
Different members have come and gone. Today, the band consists of Davey French on guitar, Freddy Herrera on bass and Brian Nolan on drums in addition to Alexakis.
“Everclear is my band,” Alexakis said. “It’s always been my band. It’s the name I brought. …. It was always this is my band. I write the songs. I sing the songs. That’s the way it’s going to be. I’m not interested in having a band where everybody brings something to the table. If they brought me something and I thought it was great, then I might use it but no one has ever brought me a song ever.”
Audience members can expect to hear all the classics from Everclear at The Ector Theatre.
Performing first will be The Nixons at 7:30 p.m. The Nixons were founded in Oklahoma City, Okla. in 1989 by singer and guitarist Zac Maloy and are responsible for such hits as “Sister,” “Wire,” “Happy Song” and “Passion.”
Fastball will follow, which formed in Austin in 1995 and has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and have been well known for their hit “The Way.”
“Fastball, we’ve known them for years and years,” Alexakis said. “I’ve known the guys from the Nixons for a while too but we’ve never done a proper tour with the Nixons. But we’ve toured with Fastball and they’re one of my favorite rock and roll bands. We’re excited to do this with them. One of the things all these bands, none of us use digital tracks. We’re all old school rock and we just go out there and play.”
The band’s tour will continue throughout the summer and wrap up on Sept. 3 in Henderson, Nev.
“We have this tour and then we have a bunch of gigs this summer and fall,” Alexakis said. “Then we do a west coast tour on the anniversary tour with just us and Fastball and we have a UK tour in November and an Australia tour in February. We’re on the road pretty non-stop for the next eight months.”
If you go
- What: Everclear Anniversary Tour (with Fastball and The Nixons).
- When: 7 p.m. Tuesday.
- Where: Ector Theatre.
- Where to buy tickets: tinyurl.com/4ek4azca
