This week I learned that Everclear, the multi-platinum alt-rock sensation of about 15 years ago, will headline Merritt Days in the Mesabi Iron Range’s “first city” of Mountain Iron. The music event will be Saturday, Aug. 10, with the Shack Shakers at *about* 6:30 p.m. and Everclear at *about* 9:30 p.m. Times are contingent on the conclusion of the parade and any resulting entanglements.
Everclear has been through some stuff since its peak in the late ’90s. Lead singer and guitarist Art Alexakis remains (he’s 51 now), but the other band members have changed a few times since 2004. Nevertheless, Alexakis’ songs are good. “Father of Mine,” “I Will Buy You a New Life, “Wonderful,” and “Santa Monica” are stuck in my memory of those years. I tried to like “AM Radio” though that song’s main accomplishment was turning me on to “Mr. Big Stuff.”
But I have to share this Everclear memory of mine. I started dating my wife in 1998, right when Everclear was a big hit. Early on, we heard one of their songs in the car and I told her that while I liked that song, I didn’t know if I could invest in a whole CD. I was going to wait for their greatest hits to come out. “That’ll never happen,” she said. “It will!” I said.
For the next six years or so every time an Everclear song came on the radio I’d say the same thing, to the point that she would make fun of me for saying it again.
Well, in the fullness of time, I eventually stopped saying it. I don’t know if they just weren’t on the radio as much, or if it just wasn’t necessary to say. The music industry was walloped by the advent of MP3s and iTunes. I cherry-picked the Everclear songs I liked for 99 cents apiece.
One day I realized that there WAS an Everclear Greatest Hits album, and that I would not need to buy it.
But hey, I’m glad to hear they’ll be at Merritt Days.
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