Photo of Freddy Herrera and Art Alexakis of Everclear by Erica Vining
Ow-lex-ahhhhh-kiss. Alexakis. If any of you watched The Andy Milonakas Show, you remember the catchy intro song. Replace with Andy Milonakas with Art Alexakis and you have the lyric stuck in my head for days in an attempt to remember how to say the last name of Everclear’s main man. As expected, no one actually asked me to pronounce it and my rehearsing was in vain. Ah, anxiety, forever keeping me on my toes.
The weekend saw mercurial weather between record setting temperatures and torrential downpours. Saturday I wasn’t sure the show would go on, but Sunday proved to be a beautiful—albeit hot—day for some bourbon and bacon. Sober for 34 years, Alexakis made it clear he was there for the latter of the two as he took the stage to celebrate the final day of festivities for the annual Pig & Whiskey Festival, held at the Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood. With support from Davey French on guitar, bassist Freddy Herrera, and drummer Brian Nolan, Alexakis opened the humid afternoon with “So Much for the Afterglow,” a single off their 1997 album of the same name. The crowd steadily grew through the song and a barrage of beach balls were tossed between fans as the band continued on to “Everything to Everyone” before pausing to dedicate their hit “Heroin Girl” to a devoted fan who had recently passed away.
Alexakis was not one to hog the stage, frequently gesturing to his bandmates and allowing them to come front and center. At one point he put on his best dad voice to encourage a mother in the crowd to sunscreen her little one, later dedicating their hit “Wonderful” to “your babies, and my baby at home” after speaking of parenting teenagers. The heat was difficult to ignore, with the band taking several water breaks and Nolan notably adding a wet towel to his head partway through the set to help cool down. At one point Alexakis had some vocal difficulties due to the heat, stating “I feel like a 61-year-old guy with multiple sclerosis who has been clean and sober for 34 years in 95-degree heat.” He recovered quickly and went on to power through the set, 16 songs in all, closing with their breakthrough hit “Santa Monica.” The crowd coming out to the Pig & Whiskey Festival featured a wide range of ages, many having been there for the entirety of the weekend. Despite the heat and weather, fans showed up for Everclear in droves as a testament to their relevance in rock music thirty years into their career. Alexakis may have been lonely and dreaming of the west coast, but the Midwest showed up for him. | Erica Vining
