The members of Everclear took the Aragon stage Thursday night dressed in “Resevoir Dogs”-style black suits, and during much of their 75-minute set, the band delivered their songs with the same taste for overkill that Quentin Tarantino’s gangsters displayed in the film.
The Portland trio, its size doubled by the addition of a guitarist, keyboard player and percussionist, stormed through their material with added velocity and force — and wound up shooting themselves in the foot.
In the rush, Everclear leader Art Alexakis abandoned both the timing of his carefully-calibrated guitar riffs and the melodies of much of his songs. His bandmates had similar problems, particularly during “Like A California King,” when bass player Craig Montoya’s harmonies were off key and Greg Eklund’s drumming was off the beat.
There was, however, an abundance of crashing cymbals, screaming and yelling, spinning and jumping, and jarring lighting, all of which agitated the mostly teenage crowd into a sweaty, bouncing throng.
It was disappointing to see Everclear offer little more than an aerobics workout, for Alexakis’ songs have more substance than the band’s performance would suggest.
Alexakis distinguished himself from the crop of post-Nirvana angst merchants by tempering his dour observations with compassion and hard-won hopefulness. As the hits “Santa Monica” and “I Will By You a New Life” demonstrate, he also has a knack for pairing a blunt melody with a driving riff and riding it for all it’s worth.
With the band steamrolling over those songs, though, the grooves got lost, and Alexakis’ rock-star posturing called his sincerity into question. Instead, Everclear’s virtues were only evident when the band let up its hyper-active presentation for a cluster of slower, quieter songs halfway through its set.
“Pale Green Stars” and “Sunflowers” allowed Alexakis to make most of his limited but affecting singing voice, as he was aided by Montoya’s spot-on harmonies, colorful keyboards, and a chugging momentum that conveyed the songs’ emotional tensions rather than denied them.
The introspective detachment that marred Marcy Playground’s opening set at Schubas this past March was even more apparent during the band’s performance in a much larger venue.
John Wozniak’s drowsy vocals and wobbly acoustic guitar strumming called out for a sharper focus. Instead, the band filled the songs with arty touches — flashy drum patterns, frequent tempo shifts, pointless noodling and dashes of jazz and flamenco — that suggested a wandering mind and produced the same effect in the listener.
Fastball’s opening set was filled with appealing pop melodies that sometimes needed firmer song structures to support them. The band’s omnipresent hit, “The Way,” however, remained undeniable in its marriage of Elvis Costellos bite and Squeeze bounce.
