Everclear’s Art Alexakis Talks Summerland Tour

Joint touring is in this summer. Whether it’s Bob Dylan tapping Wilco and My Morning Jacket to open for him, or the Ben Folds Five getting together with friends Guster and the Barenaked Ladies, one band doesn’t seem to be enough these days.

Planning these tours can be exhausting from some, but the formula is easy if you take it from Everclear frontman Art Alexakis. Everclear is deep in to their second joint tour dubbed Summerland.

“I do what I love to do; I get straight down to four bands, just rock bands that I love that I haven’t talked to,” Alexakis says. “That was my criteria. Short sets, everyone in black, three hours, four classic bands, and it’s working.”

This time around, those other bands are Live, Filter, and Sponge, who continue Everclear’s trend of touring with other bands who found fame in the mid-90s.

But for Alexakis, touring in 2013 is a lot different than it was when the band was enjoying the early radio success of “Santa Monica.”

“I don’t see a lot of partying at all,” Alexakis says. “Last year I did the tour there were two buses where all the chicks were going to; it wasn’t our bus, that’s for sure, because we’re all married. You know, we cook, that’s what we do on our bus.”

Alexakis says his crowd is “not like a Justin Bieber crowd,” and despite the dated touring aesthetic, the band is still picking up new generations of audience members.

“When I go out to sign autographs after the show, I’m meeting a lot of younger people,” says Alexakis.

The band has taken to crafting their setlists with a heavy emphasis on the classics, and have been collaborating with their tour mates, a key part of the tour, says Alexakis, and a trend he hopes to continue.

“The main thing to me is the camaraderie for everybody to play with everybody else,” he says. “We’re all getting mobbed at the gate. It’s like it couldn’t be better, you couldn’t make a better TV version.

“We’re only [a few] shows from the end and I’m like ‘oh my God something’s going to happen, someone’s going to turn into like, you know, the Wolverine; it’s going to be bad.’”

Check out the rest of Everclear’s Summerland 2013 tour dates below.

7/24 – Arkansas Music Pavilion – Fayetteville, AR
7/27 – River City Casino – St. Louis, MO
7/28 – Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre – Kansas City, KS