Everclear Setlist

Electra Made Me Blind
Heroin Girl
You Make Me Feel Like a Whore
Father of Mine
Summerland
Strawberry
Heartspark Dollarsign
Rock and Roll (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

Set Times

FIRST AVENUE
& 7th Street Entry

DOORS – 6:30PM

SPONGE – 7:30PM

LOCAL H – 8:20PM

EVERCLEAR – 9:25PM

It was an old school 90’s alt rock evening at First Avenue in Minneapolis, where in each case of the three bands appearing, the lead singer is the only original remaining member. At the top of the bill was Everclear, one of the defining bands of mid-90’s alternative. Almost done with their tour, we’ve been following along, as Vu caught them earlier in this tour down in Jacksonville, and also saw them here at First Avenue in 2024, so they are quickly becoming a regular at the site.

Sponge was the first to come to stage. The alt rock band was formed in Detroit in the early 1990’s. With several early hits, especially off of 1996’s Wax Ecstatic, the band has steadily pressed on behind lead singer Vinnie Dombroski. The band has nine albums, including a recent album of covers, called 1994, released in 2024. The quintet (vocals, guitar, guitar, bass, and drums) hit hard right away. With the second song Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain), the crowd was already enraptured. Dombroski noticed, saying “damn, you’re fantastic”, and that joy carried through.

Stylistically, this was grunge and leaned into those darker chords as Dromboski grooved across the stage. There was good theater in the moves and both vocalist and bass player had all of right moves to accentuate the music. I really love bands who recognize the performative side as a true add on to the music and lean in. We had an Alice In Chains feel on a number where one of the guitarists used a vocal distorter to great effect. (Side note: it had been a hot minute since I had seen so much plaid, but the audience brought that 90’s grunge fashion in spades.) Dombroski on percussion was an added layer, and Sponge was firing on all cylinders. Finishing up a pretty brief set with the audience singing along to the final number Plowed, Sponge had understood the assignment, setting up a great vibe for the evening.

I got a chance to talk to Dombroski after the set. I asked him how he keeps the energy up after thirty years, and here at the penultimate stop on their tour. He leaned in and said, “See them (Local H, who had gotten started)? Look how they are bringing it. You’ll see Everclear do the same. How could we not?” A follow up question had him noting that there are as many new fans to Sponge as those who knew them back in the day, and how great it is to perform for both. I was super impressed by how serious Dombroski was in the chance to entertain and bring along fans in this show.

Next up was Local H, an Illinois based band originally formed in 1990. Helmed by vocalist and guitarist Scott Lucas, Local H has a lot of albums and EPs, most recently 2020’s LIFERS (as well as a recent re-release of their debut album ReFISTED). This was darker grunge and the duo (vocals/guitar and drums) created a pretty effective layer of sound, with heavy reverb on the guitar work. Lucas’ baritone was perfectly suited to the musical tone, as numbers like The Misanthrope were excellently helmed. An “are you with us?” had huge cheers in response and Lucas flew into the next number with heavy, noisy music. Hands on the Bible had very heavy drum work and worked well.

The duo played off each other effectively, and they had the front of the house head banging by the time Lucas went into full throated scream. The longest number of the set was tremendous in its buildup and I was impressed by Local H’s ability to pull the audience fully into what they were doing. The transitions across songs kept things trucking along, and Lucas kept the energy up through the latter part of the set. With some strobe light effects, Local H crushed the end of their set, with an extended drum and guitar outro to finish things up.

Everclear was the headliner, touring on the 30th anniversary of their debut album, the alt rock classic Sparkle and Fade. Behind frontman guitarist and vocalist Art Alexakis, the band has continued uninterrupted even with complete change over of the rest of the band. Everclear has four Gold or Platinum albums, but the focus was clearly going to be on that first album. Alexakis was on point, leaning into things early, with a “sing it” to the audience during You Make Me Feel Like a Whore. An asked for and received “f-yeah”, was well played and a heartfelt “you sold us out two years in a row” got a rowdy crowd response. Taking a moment to thank the audience, Everclear promised a long night of hits and immediately followed with Father of Mine, letting the crowd take some of the lyrics. Alexakis had a fine understanding of the interplay of the songs with the audience and it was fun to see him drive things forward.

A brief interlude of Santa Monica had the crowd in full song along, even for the short snippet. It could be a difficult thing to know that most of the audience wants the work from the debut from thirty years ago, but Everclear knew how to feed the breadcrumbs along in a way that let them intersperse other numbers. A clever example was Summerland, which included lyrics of “sparkle and fade”, pulling the through line of the set. A call out to original drummer Greg Ecklund (supposedly in the audience), Alexakis dedicated Strawberry to his fellow MS friends (he was diagnosed in 2019), his fellows sober friends and all of the survivors. Heartspark Dollarsign hit all the nostalgia notes and the crowd was riding along in full force.

It’s worth mentioning that nearly every song was a huge hit at its time. It was a reminder that Everclear had a run of gigantic hits and could still bring that energy in live performance. Some brilliant guitar licks had the crowd jumping and the band provided some great backing vocals. We got a partial of Led Zepplin’s Rock and Roll with Scott Lucas onstage singing. Her Brand New Skin had the great lyric “next thing you know I think I’ll want to be a better man”. A change of guitar led to band introductions and then into the somewhat lower key Queen of the Air. There’s a way this kind of retro show can be pretty tame, but Everclear brought an intensity that made it feel fresh. The main set ended with My Sexual Life, a perfect rock & roll song with that great guitar intro. Coming back for the encore, the band started with So Much for the Afterglow, an outstanding bit of rock. Ending with Santa Monica, Everclear finished the sold out evening on the highest of high notes.