Everclear at Ponte Vedra Concert Hall (Oct 12, 2025)

Everclear Setlist

Electra Made Me Blind
Heroin Girl
You Make Me Feel Like a Whore
Father of Mine
Santa Monica tease
Summerland
Strawberry
Heartspark Dollarsign
Everything to Everyone
Highway to Hell (AC/DC cover)/ Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin cover)
with Scott Lucas
The Twistinside
Her Brand New Skin
Nehalem
Queen of the Air
Wonderful
Pale Green Stars
Chemical Smile
My Sexual Life
— Encore —
So Much for the Afterglow
I Will Buy You a New Life
Santa Monica
with Vinnie Dombroski

Tour Dates

The Sparkle and Fade 30th Anniversary Tour officially kicks off next Thursday in LA! Tickets are moving quickly across the tour so grab them while you can. Who’s ready for us? 🤘⚡

October 12 Ponte Vedra, FL @ Ponte Vedra Concert Hall
October 14 Charleston, SC @ Charleston Music Hall
October 16 Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre
October 17 Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
October 18 Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes
October 19 Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
October 21 Boston, MA @ Big Night Live
October 22 New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
October 23 New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place
October 24 Bensalem, PA @ Xcite Center at Parx Casino
October 25 Washington, DC @ Black Cat
October 27 Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
October 28 Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
October 30 Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
October 31 McHenry, IL @ The Vixen
November 1 Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
November 2 Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall

We’re in the middle of the The Sparkle and Fade 30th Anniversary Tour, headlined by Everclear, with their alternative 90s buddies Local H and Sponge, as they stopped by the newly renovated Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, in the beautiful coastal town of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

For those not from the area, this small city is about 45 minutes (on paper) southeast of Jacksonville (and just south of Jacksonville Beach). From my drive, it’s closer to an hour due to traffic congestion, road constructions, slow drivers (I’m one of them!), or coastal flooding…

Once within the Ponte Vedra Beach city, there are plenty of commerce / retail stores north of town. You take a long, scenic slow drive on a main road that’s literally called the Scenic Road that leads to the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall. If you continue on this road, it will lead you to St Augustine, so now you understand the layout of where this city is located.

The Ponte Vedra Concert Hall is quite a beautiful building. It was originally a Baptist church that found life in the ‘80s, but was repurposed as a concert hall in 2013. They booked a lot of bands throughout the years, but when I moved to Jacksonville, the venue wasn’t active because of renovations. After pouring in $12.9 million dollars, and after a long 14-month shut down, the venue was overjoyed to re-open the venue on August 1, 2025 with Grammy Award-winning artist Dan Tyminski.

What I really like about the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall was that it was really designed for a viewing experience. You have the standing / dance floor (with no blocking columns or obstructions), and behind the FOH (Front of House) is the Soundboard. Behind the Soundboard are stadium seating, so fans, who don’t want to stand, can sit and enjoy the show. There are also two side balcony seatings. Bathrooms are well lit and just outside of the standing room. The bars are also outside the standing room with optional doors to close (so their lights and noise won’t distract the audience or performer). If you don’t want to watch the show, you can sit outside or hang out on the second floor. It’s really well designed.

I think the venue had to make sound (a new million-dollar sound system) and view and atmosphere (and friendliness!) to appeal to concert goers, because it really is an effort to make the long drive to the venue, which a staffer confessed to me, “we’re in the middle of nowhere”. Based on the sold-out show, fans are willing to happily make that long drive commitment.

First band on the bill was Sponge. You may remember this band for their massive hit “Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain)”, which had plenty of fans singing back/help sing. The band went through several different lineup changes, but eventually the original members (vocalist Vinnie Dombroski, guitarist Mike Cross, bassist Tim Cross, drummer Jimmy Paluzzi, and guitarist Joey Mazzola) reformed in 2018. It didn’t last long, as we were hit with the COVID pandemic. By this time, they got several new drummers, and then founding guitarist Mike Cross died … so it’s been a rough couple of years for the band.

It seemed that the band sped through their set quite quickly. Before they get to their hit song “Plowed”, they had a few more minutes to kill. So they asked the audience if there were any requests. Someone shouted out “Speed Racer”, and singer Vinnie Dombroski happily obliged. He mentioned the band took part in covering cartoon songs, alongside the Butthole Surfers and the Ramones. I own the album, Saturday Morning: Cartoons’ Greatest Hits, and can tell you my favorites were Frente! (“Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sun Shine In”) and Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donelly (“Josie and the Pussycats”).

Next up was Local H, my favorite of the lineup. I can’t believe after all these years that I’ve never seen the band live. They were currently a duo (guitarist Scott Lucas and drummer Ryan Harding), but occasionally Gabe Rodriguez shows up on stage to sing a backup vocal or play the tambourine… and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. No introduction, nothing, it’s like he was never there. No one knows who that guy was, but they admitted he was their favorite band member.

Singer/guitarist Scott Lucas asked us, “Have you seen us before?” and briefly hearing ‘Yes’ from the audience, he continues, “Then you know what to expect” as he launches into very repetitive guitar chords and really simple, but very catchy lyrics like “what’s wrong with you?” (from “Nothing Special”) and my personal favorite, “That’s What They All Say”. If you like drone, high energy performance, you’ll really love Local H.

Local H’s new album ReFISTED (available on G&P Records/SoundOn) is a re-recording of their debut LP Ham Fisted. The new record is a do-over from an older, more experienced, Scott Lucas adding new ideas and giving these old songs a fresh facelift. He thought it would be easy, turns out it was one of the hardest records he’s ever made. Lucas adds, “It was like getting into a fistfight with myself at 24. I think I got a few licks in, but I walked out of there pretty beat up.”

Headliner Everclear closed out the night. The group is celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Sparkle and Fade, with this promotional tour and re-issing their album as a Remastered Deluxe Edition, via Universal Music Group.

Everclear at First Avenue (Oct 20, 2024)

We saw Everclear in Oct 2024 and wrote, “American rock band Everclear recently sold out First Avenue’s mainroom on Sunday night. The band was incredibly thankful and was very happy to see so many fans packed the First Avenue’s dancefloor. Band leader Art Alexakis, said that the last time they sold out in Minneapolis was at the height of their popularity, around 1996… so it felt like a return to the good old days of radio hit songs.”

Very much like last year’s appearance, Everclear is serving their fanbase, who loves them. Looking at the audience, there were some 12-year-olds (some with mohawks), so their parents were passing their love of Everclear to their children. This is a generational thing, but it might also be family thing, as they might relate to Art Alexakis’ very personal song, “Father of Mine”. However they found themselves, they were certainly waiting to hear those songs from The Sparkle and Fade (and So Much for the Afterglow).

Alexakis knows this, and would occasionally tease us with snippets of those songs, like “Santa Monica”. “We’ll get to that!”

Speaking of fans, Alexakis came on wearing an Everclear cap, and it’s probably a gimmick now, but he said he’s a loser for wearing his own band merch. Let’s fix that, he then offers it to his loyal fanbase. After which, his familiar black fedora-style hat was brought on stage for him to wear.

There were a lot of fans wearing Everclear T-Shirts and buying the new re-issued album, carrying it around with their Everclear canvas bags. Seeing how packed the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall got, it’s clear to me that the tour is going quite well, and hopefully, Thaddeus can let you know how the tour is going once they hit Minneapolis on November 1st.

P.S. I haven’t kept up with Sponge, but semi-recently the band released a studio album called 1994, which featured a cover of Morrissey’s “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get.” As a big Morrissey fan, I have to say, that is my least favorite Morrissey single. It’s so slow and whiney, and typical Morrissey. I guess Sponge tried to fixed these issues by doing a cover that sounded nothing like Morrissey, especially taking place at a stripper bar, it’s pretty funny. Despite Sponge’s best efforts, I still don’t like the song.

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