90s acts rock downtown Vegas amidst heavy heat

90s acts rock downtown Vegas amidst heavy heat

Mark E. Ortega

June 30, 2013

If a near record-setting Las Vegas temperature wasn't hot enough Saturday night, additional heat was brought by the Summerland Tour as part of Fremont Street's Rock of Vegas 2013 free concert series in downtown Las Vegas.

Popular nineties acts Everclear, Live, Filter, and Sponge played over the course of more than three hours in front of a packed crowd that braved temperatures more than one hundred degrees. This despite the sun having set hours before.

The bands played condensed sets in order to get through the show by 12:30. Due to this, each act played through their recognizable hits while also throwing in a new track or two to bring attention to new albums they are or will soon be peddling.

Sponge kicked things off with their 1996 hit "Wax Ecstatic" and closed with their memorable 1994 hit, "Plowed" during their five-song set. The band also slid in "Fade From View", a track from their new album Stop the Bleeding, which was released this year.

Filter was next to hit the stage. They opened with "(Can't You) Trip Like I Do", a song the band collaborated on with Crystal Method for the soundtrack to the movie Spawn back in 1997. Two songs from their most recent album followed, and the final two songs of their six-song set were their marquee tracks, with "Take a Picture" and "Hey Man Nice Shot" revving up the crowd before they exited the stage.

Performing on their first tour since the addition of new lead singer Chris Shinn, Live was up next. Shinn replaced the departed and beloved Ed Kowalczyk, who left the band in 2009 to go on his own. Shinn did a pretty solid impersonation of Kowalczyk, and if you were blindfolded, you may have thought it was the original lineup when their set opened up with their smash hit, "All Over You".

Shinn didn't quite have the stage presence of his predecessor, but for their first tour, he performed admirably. A singalong broke out when the group launched into "Lighting Crashes", and members of the other bands on the bill joined Live on stage for "I Alone" before they closed their seven-song set with "White, Discussion".

It was Everclear lead man Art Alexakis who put together the Summerland Tour, also emceeing the event, introducing each band as having "that great American rock sound".

Though Everclear was one of the more popular rock groups as the nineties wore down, it has been awhile since they've last recorded a hit. Their nine-song set delivered all of their major hits, though it is clear Alexakis' vocals aren't what they used to be live. The crowd didn't mind, helping the lead man sing the lyrics to "Everything to Everyone" and "Father of Mine" as though they were still in heavy rotation on mainstream rock stations.

During "AM Radio", a scuffle broke out in the crowd between a number of drunken patrons. This is what can happen when a free show goes past midnight and some have hit the wall. The band didn't let it affect their performance, and launched into their last big hit, 2000's "Wonderful", an anthem for kids of divorced parents everywhere.

Everclear closed their set with the song that may have put them on the map, 1995's "Santa Monica", which was in heavy play during MTV's heyday. Members from the other bands joined on stage for the chorus, leaving fans satisfied they got more than they thought they would from a free concert.

Though a bit young during these bands' primes, this writer was very familiar due to two older brothers who got him hooked on alternative rock at an early age. The average age of the crowd made it feel as though I was at a house party mostly comprised of my older brothers' friends. 

Whenever each band launched into the songs that made them household names for fifteen minutes or more, you could see a look of nostalgia wash over the faces of most of those in attendance. Perhaps it brought them back to a time where their potential was still vast and the difficulties of life still seemed far away. If that was the goal of this edition of the Fremont Street Experience's free concert series, mission accomplished.