Everclear’s Art Alexakis has a thing for Chicago: ‘More direct, more honest’

As his tour bus rumbled through North Carolina and into the last third of a tour that hits Chicago at the end of the month, Everclear frontman Art Alexakis said he had considered moving here more than once.

“I really, really enjoy Chicago,” said Alexakis, who will bring Everclear’s “Sparkle and Fade 30th Anniversary Tour 2025” to a sold-out Thalia Hall in Chicago Sunday, Nov. 2. Tickets also are expected to sell out by the Friday, Oct. 31, showtime at The Vixen in McHenry.

The feeling is mutual. Everclear, which formed in 1992 in Portland, Oregon, and broke out three years later with chart-topper “Santa Monica” off “Sparkle and Fade,” sold out Thalia Hall months ago.

Joining the bill are fellow alternative rock veterans Local H, out of North suburban Zion, and Sponge.

Alexakis, 63, is no fan of Spotify (“they don’t pay the bands,” he said), but on that platform, metropolitan Chicago is the worldwide leader supporting Everclear with more than 72,000 monthly listeners.

“That’s not surprising to me, because back in the day when we were actually selling records, Chicago beat out L.A., Portland and New York — not by much, but they beat them out. That was always one of our biggest markets,” Alexakis said.

“I’m telling you, man, back in the ’90s we could do two Aragon (shows), that’s 10,000 people right there, that’s 5,000 a pop. For us, that was pretty good.”

Though Alexakis traveled farther up the coast to form Everclear, he grew up in west Los Angeles. He didn’t quite fit. Alexakis felt he “was always a little bit less (bs), more hard-edged about things,” he said.

“People would be, like, ‘Where are you from — New York, Chicago?’ They meant it as an insult. But when I met people from Chicago or New York or the East Coast, I liked those people. They weren’t typical California passive-aggressive. They were more straightforward.

“I think one of the reasons we’ve had a lot of success in Chicago and Detroit and cities in the Midwest is that they are less about the (bs), more about what’s going on. Less passive-aggressive. More direct, more honest,” Alexakis said.

Maybe that’s why he bonded with Detroit’s Sponge, who on an early tour “treated us like brothers,” and Scott Lucas of Local H, “one of the most underrated bands from the whole ’90s. (Lucas) just puts it out there every night,” Alexakis said.

Chicagoans also like a hard-luck success story. Alexakis’ background delivers.

While not belaboring it in an interview, Alexakis grew up with domestic disasters and lives and loves lost to drugs, episodes reflected in hits such as “Heroin Girl” off “Sparkle and Fade” (1995), “Father of Mine” off “So Much for the Afterglow” (1997), and “Wonderful” off “Songs From an American Movie Vol. One: Learning How to Smile” (2000).

Now consisting of Alexakis on vocals and guitar, Davey French on guitar, Freddy Herrera on bass and Brian Nolan on drums, four of Everclear’s 11 studio albums went Gold or Platinum.

The band charted 12 Top 40 singles and, interestingly, drew a 1998 Grammy nomination for an instrumental, “El Distorto De Melodica,” off “So Much for the Afterglow.”

Alexakis is long past the dangerous days of his youth, but not past challenges. In 2016 he was being treated for an injury after a car crash when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Living in Pasadena, California, he was forced to stay five months in a hotel after the Eaton Fire in January.

Despite these life-changing events, the “Sparkle and Fade 30th Anniversary Tour” is just one of several recent projects for Alexakis and Everclear.

They include Alexakis’ first solo album, “Sun Songs,” in 2019; a 30th anniversary reissue of the band’s 1992 debut album, “World of Noise”; a 30-year anniversary video; the band’s first live album, “Live at the Whisky a Go Go,” in 2023; the first vinyl release of “Songs From an American Movie Vol. One”; and two new singles.

There’s also a deluxe reissue of “Sparkle and Fade” in the works, with unreleased songs on the two-record set.

“Any kind of double-vinyl album is cool. If you grew up in the ’70s like me, man, it’s pretty cool,” Alexakis said.

More than 30 years in the game, Everclear remains cool to the “young people” Alexakis sees on tour.

“It’s just insane. When I say young people, I’m talking kids who are in their teens and 20s who weren’t even born when these (expletive) songs came out, these songs that are on the radio,” Alexakis said.

“And to see that look in their eyes, to them it’s brand new, right? And I can see that it’s getting to them, and exciting to them, even though they’ve got their ‘grandpas’ up on stage.”

He feels no age difference on stage. He revisits the young man who wrote those Everclear classics and channels the boy he was writing about.

“When I sing those songs, I’ve got to get in to where my head was at that time.”

“Like, ‘Father of Mine,’ I have to get into that kid I was, that I wrote that song about. Me at 6, me at 8, me at 10,” Alexakis said.

“And same thing with the other songs. I’ve got to get into that mindset. But that’s not hard. That guy’s still in me. He’s still there, kicking around.”

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“Sparkle and Fade 30th Anniversary Tour 2025”

When: 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31

Where: The Vixen, 1208 N. Green St., McHenry, (815) 528-3008

Tickets: $45.95-$56.95 at etix.com/ or everclearmusic.com/