Miles and Miles Away
The Everclear Tour Log
Winter/Spring '96
Click here for the current tour schedule.
Hey everyone there in cyberland,
Well despite the cold, sometimes -40 degress in St Louis, the tour has been going great! The last four shows have just been packed with people braving the cold to see a great bill and great performances by both Ruth Ruth and No Doubt. Everyone is really cool in both bands and it's been fun watching their sets from the side wings. We were on tour with Ruth Ruth in Nov. and Dec. of last year and they are the nicest guys we have ever toured with. I really like their record and they even let me sing on one of their songs, "I Killed Meg the Prom Queen," live on this tour, so watch out for all my sour notes on the road. Last night, Feb. 4th, we played 1st Avenue and earlier in the day we were doing a radio interview and everyone was calling in for tickets, but the station didn't have any. We jokingly suggested that if somone dove nude in the snow that we would put them on our guest list. Some crazy dude called up and said that at 4:30 he would show up wearing an orange Phillips 76 hat and a g-string on and present himself to everyone waiting to get in to the show. (It was an early show). This crazy guy did it just to get in to see the show. That I don't understand. Tomorrow we have the day off and I plan on catching some sleep and then on the 7th we play the Metro theatre in Chicago. I almost forgot to mention that we have been playing a new song on these dates that is called "Hateful." We recorded the song for a Surfrider compilation featuring, among others, Pearl Jam. We recorded it in LA when we were there filming the video for Heartspark $. The song is only 95 seconds long and slamming the whole time! Also we are releasing a CD single for "Heartspark$" including stuff that was recorded in Portland for release in Australia. Included on the single is the radio mix of "Heartspark," an acoustic version of "Heroin Girl," Craig Montoya singing lead on an AC/DC song called "Sin City" and an old demo of a song called "Happy Hour". I believe that the CD will be released in March sometime. So just trying to keep everyone up to date on everything on this end. See you all on the road..GREG
Well tonight was exciting! We played the Metro Theatre in Chicago and it was a packed sellout! Keanu Reeves took some time off a movie he is making to come see the show. Movie stars backstage is too weird. We saw our first Everclear tattoo and it freaked out the whole band in a proud sort of way. It was the scripted word Everclear down the forearm and it was beautiful. Another thing, Art's receipe for his famous Greek salad, I can vouch for how good it is, is printed in this month's Detour magazine. Sandra Bullock is on the cover and the recipe/picture is on the very last page of the mag. Also on the mag front, our fall tour with Ruth Ruth is featured in the newest edition of everyone's favorite heavy metal turned alternative magazine, RIP. So check it out at all 7-11 and grocery stores. Tomorrow we will be in Detroit and finally the weather is finally warming up although I hear through the internet that our hometown in the NW is about to flood. That would be something to see. Oh yeah, I almost forgot -- someone tonight was doing a story about how the inernet has effected everyone's lives. Someone had told him that I had a laptop so he asked me what I use it for and I said, "to check in with Nehalem, of course. Duh!" So don't be surprised if Nehalem gets mentioned in his article which somehow seemed tied into tomorrow's 24 hr internet record or something. You know me -- I don't have a clue! Till next time.............Greg
Hey everybody, Craig here. The tour is going great -- all the shows have been over the top! Everybody at the shows has been really, really cool! Thanks again for all the support. Last night we played Detroit and it was very hot. Tomorrow we head for Atlanta to play with The Toadies, Collective Soul and The Bodeans at the Gavin convention. We are all stoked because we love the Toadies so much and look foward to checking them out again. Maybe I can steal some of those rock star moves they got. I've had a great time checking out the guest book and all the great things you all have commented on, thanks again! Just curious what everybody thinks about us touring with Silverchair? I'm sure we will have plenty of crazy stories to tell. Gregy just redied his hair, and laidies look out -- he looks smashing. When we get some crazy stories we will let you all know. Thanks again! Good bye.
Well I'm here in Pittsburgh and we finally have a day off. We shot some photos for an upcoming Details magazine and then laid around all day watching tv. It feels nice to kick back. Last night we played here in Pitts and the show was slamming! There was a pit all the way to the back wall and everyone was going crazy! Check out the new Spin article on us -- it's the issue with Tori Amos on the cover. It's an okay article, not a literary masterpiece. Tomorrow we'll be in Buffalo and after that we'll be heading up to Canada for shows in Toronto and Montreal. Then we start working our way to N.Y and then to Europe!! If I can figure it out, I plan on sending e-mail from Europe. Wish me luck as I flail on the Internet. Till next time...........GREG
Hey keyboard surfers,
Well tonight we played in the beautiful northern neighbor city of Montreal. Once again it was sold out and the crowd was going crazy. As usual the front row got the brunt of it and it looked like they were getting killed. Today we played live on Music Plus, the Canadian French-speaking version of MTV, and we played three songs live including "Heartspark$," "Summerland," and "Heroin Girl." Apparently they had 30+ contest winners who got to come into the studio and hang out and eat hot dogs with us. It was all cool and they all spoke really good English, better than us even! Tonight we leave to drive back to the U.S. Last night we played Toronto and even though the crowd was a little reserved it was a good show. Ruth Ruth even let me come out and sing "Meg the Prom Queen" with them. My own rock-n-roll fantasy lives again! Well with only three more shows to go before Europe we are all looking forward to being turned loose on European crowds. With our West Coast tour coming up with our buddies Hagfish though I'm sure we will be looking forward to coming back to our home shores. So that's it for now till next time.............Greg
Well, I've had a hard time getting online in Europe because of all the different phone equipment needed, so by the time you read this we'll probably be stateside again. Well, so far the Europeon tour has been going great. The response is so different than the one we had just a year ago over here. After the show in Paris as we were leaving all these teenage French girls were running after Craig screaming, "Craig, I love you! Craig, I love you! Je suis amore!" We haven't stopped giving him a hard time about that one. Tonight in Frankfurt we had a good show in a packed beyond-capacity venue and it was cool because there are always a few people singing the words. That isn't too weird except that in many countries "Sparkle and Fade" hasn't even been released yet. It also seems strange to be introducing "Heroin Girl" as our new single, but as usual there is always a huge mosh pit for that one. Well, I've got to go to bed but just wanted y'all to know that we are suriving even on shitty Europeon food and missing the states.........Greg
It's too weird to be in the beautiful ancient city of Strasbourg, France, watching Alanis Morrisette live in Germany on the television. I'm only watching it because it's the only thing in English on at the moment. Outside my window there is a huge square anchored by the train station and a carnival ride pumping out house and rave music. That is the beauty of Europe; it's weird. I actually really enjoy it here because I lived in London for four years as a kid and I got used to Europe's differences then. Having said that, I think we all are a little homesick and in the need of a 7-11 Big Gulp. Yesterday we had the day off, and today I walked around this beautiful city. They have a cathedral here that is just amazing to see. Up until this century it was the tallest stucture in the Christian world. There are also canals that run through the city with huge swans swimming through them. If you didn't feel the history of this place I think you would swear you were at Disneyworld. Tonight we play here and tomorrow we'll be traveling to Lyon, France. Salut! Greg
Strasbourg fucking rules! The show tonight was amazing! All these French kids were pumped up and ready to go before we even came out. They went fucking nuts as soon as we launched into "Electra." Just as we started to play "Loser Makes Good," I sprayed Craig with water out of my mouth. Art then stopped the song and asked Craig if he wanted to get me back, and then they both ran for their water bottles and sprayed the shit out of me. I ended up soaked, but it made for that cool rock 'n' roll effect of spraying off my drums once they got hit when we started "Chemical Smile" instead. Anyway, the rest of the show went great. So we hung out and watched the Silverchair set, and then at the end of their encore they play this really fast song, so at the end of it Craig and Art ran out and started dancing. They then tackled the boys and threw their guitars around while everything began to feed back and make this awful noise. They kept tackling the boys and throwing everything around until the Silverchair drummer, Ben, threw over his drums and stage dove into the crowd and was ripped to shreds by all the little French girls. A very rock 'n' roll ending to a great show. I'm going to bed early because I'm still recovering from a cold and tomorrow we need to drive to Lyon. So goodnight.........Greg
Well today we awoke in Paris, France, and then we flew out of Paris to Luton Town in a suburb of London. The airline we flew out on was called Suckling Airlines, which in our end-of-tour lack-of-sleep delirium we thought was pretty funny. We weren't laughing though when we walked out on the tarmac to our plane, if you could call it that. It was a fifteen-seater twin prop lawnmower where, even though there were empty seats, they made us sit in the back so we would have all the weight there to help us get off the ground. So anyway, we arrive and are driven into the English countryside to this huge manor house which is rented from this transmeditational cult every month to film a popular British TV show. We rehearse our two songs, "Heartspark" and "Santa Monica," and then they bring in all these rave/MTV House of Style/Grind kids who are supposed to dance to our songs. Fucking weird! Anyway, as soon as we are done with that we are again driven to the beautiful Luton airport and board an even smaller eight-seater plane. It kept getting worse; the joke's on us apparently -- Suckling indeed! -- and fly to Amsterdam only to get there just in time for our soundcheck at the sold out Paridiso theatre. Another crazy fucking day. This comes after playing "Santa Monica" on a French TV show in Paris last night that apparently had as a guest the "French" Elvis, otherwise known as Johnny Halladay. To us he looked like an old, overweight, too-tan Frenchman who still chases 14-year-old schoolgirls, but it was supposed to be a great honor to be a fellow guest on the show with him. Apparently he has been around since the Sixties, so I guess he is going through that fat old Elvis period. Also, in other French news, the "Craig Montoya rules France Tour" continues strong. We also played an in-store at the Virgin Megastore where they hired security guys, which seemed ridiculous to me until it took four of them to protect Craig while he signed stuff after the show. They then led us outside and threw us in a car while these kids were knocking on the windows to get at Craig. It just seemed so ridiculous to us. Unbelievable. We can't wait to get back to the states and do our normal thing. It's just weird here sometimes. Till next time........Greg
Well I'm finally cross-eyed and smiling from lack of sleep. We finally have a day off, but as usual it's a drive day; we drive from L.A. to Sacramento today. I know its been a while since I've checked in but it's been a crazy week and a half since our return from Europe. We flew back from Europe to Portland (after an 19-hour flight) severely jet lagged for a whole day and a half at home with just enough time to do laundry and pay rent before we flew to NYC to start rehearsals for SNL. The weirdest thing about walking into the studio for the first time is how small it really is, also even though you've never been there before, you walk in and everything is sooo familiar because you've only been watching since seventh grade, you seem to recognize everything. The funny thing about the whole rehearsal days before the show is that they give NBC SNL tours for the tourists and the bring them upstairs into a glass hallway up in the upper balcony, and so every ten minutes on the dot there would be all these tourists rocking out as we ran through the songs. Well what can I say about SNL? I was having a great time all the way up until they cut our second song, "Heartspark$." They cut the song right at the end of the show and then told us to go smile and wave goodbye. That's why when you see us at the credits of the show we just kind of stand there feebly waving and accepting all the cast members' apologies and handshakes. We then boycotted their after show party and met for drinks with our family and friends till late in the night. We then fly out of NYC three hours later very tired and fly back to Portland for a day at home. Then flew to Phoenix for the start of the west coast tour.
So that brings us up to the beautiful warm sun of Arizona. The show in Phoenix was great, and the place was packed out. It seemed strange to play another place other than Gibsons, but we had a lot of fun. Next we went to L.A. for three sold out shows at the Roxy. It felt so good to play on this great rock 'n' roll stage that have held the likes of Guns 'n' Roses and Motley Crue and even Warrant. While in California we also recieved our gold records that symbolizes selling 500,000 copies of our records. Having said that, thank you all very much for all your support and kind words, many of which can be read here on Nehalem. It was a very big night for us after so many years of hard work and it's something I'll never forget. Thank you.
While in L.A., Craig started to have problems with his throat, which his rocking version of "Sin City" didn't help any. It got so bad that we thought of cancelling the San Diego show last night, but he wanted to play, and so even sick with fever and not being able to swallow, he went out. And even though he didn't sing, he played his ass off. He is one strong motherfucker!
Last night in San Diego I played a trick on my friend Tony, the drummer for Hagfish. Art and I watched from the side of the stage as Hagfish tore it up. All night long Tony had been doing a trick of throwing his stick over to Art whenever there was pause in their song, and then Art would throw it back and Tony would catch it and continue playing without missing a beat, much to the delight of the crowd. Well I ran offstage and out of my tour cases grabbed all my chewed up and broken sticks that I save for my grandma, then ran back and crouched behind Art with the sticks behind my back. When Tony threw his next stick over to Art, he picked it up, and as he threw it back I threw my 20+ pairs of sticks back as well. And the look on Tony's face as all these sticks rained down on him and not knowing which one to grab and having only a split second before he had to play the song again. The crowd seem to find it funny as well as all the other Hagfish boys on stage. Tony was a good sport about it, and now I'm watching my back waiting for reprisal. So anyway, got to go get into the van and drive up to Sacramento, so see ya there.... GREG
Today we are in San Francisco and played the famous Fillmore Theatre. It was a great show and Hagfish even let us get up and sing a They Might Be Giants song that they cover, and so we got up and made fools of ourselves but had a good time playing with the nutty Hagfish boys! Earlier today though, we played a free show in a square in downtown San Fran to support and publicize MTV's Choose or Lose voter registration program. It was also put on and supported by Live 105 radio. The square, I can't remember the name, was the same square where U2 played in their movie "Rattle and Hum." "Rock 'n' roll stops the traffic" etc. We really didn't think anyone would show up, especially since we played at noon on a school day, but it seems everyone skipped school or cut out early from a business lunch to come check it out. One of the coolest things about the afternoon was seeing three businessmen in suits and briefcases crowd surfing over all the kids' hands. My, won't they be the talk of the water cooler tomorrow at the office. Anyway we were there to try to get people registered to vote and express their beliefs in the political arena. So get out there and vote! The crowd was a couple thousand strong, and at one point it looked like the crowd barriers were going to collapse! Afterwards we got to meet a lot of people and found out all of them skipped school to come see the show. Someone shoved a recorder in my face and said, "This is for Brent and Nehalem, say something cool!" Of course I don't have anything to say that is cool so I'm sure I flubbed my way through it and sounded like a complete idiot. Oh well, even now I'm babbling because it's late and I'm tired. So till next time.... GREG
So the day we drove down to Portland -- actually Salem an hour outside of Portland -- and played to our home town crowd. As usual it was so much fun and soo loud!! It was so cool for me to play the Armory because i had seen bands like Nirvana and Jane's Addiction there and it was a trip to be onstage. It was great to be home and see our friends and play to our home crowd. However, we didn't get back home to Portland until 2 a.m. that night and we had to fly out to Vacover BC at 6 a.m., so we didn't have any real time in Portland.
We flew to Vancover and went straight to an instore appearance that we arranged after we found out after the fact that that night's show was 19 and older. So we invited all the kids down for a free show at a music store, and man did they come down. There were several hundred crammed into this tiny store and they all sang along and gently moshed. There was also some giant dog suit guy wearing an everclear shirt and dancing. For everyone that was there you know what I'm saying. It was like a bad acid trip or something. We then did an online interview where we got to hear from our main cyberfriend Brent and others from around the country. We also answered questions from everyone that was in the store. From there we went to the show and had an amazing show and even were visited on stage by two naked streakers who I believed -- although they ran by so fast that I can't really be sure -- were Zack from Hagfish and Wes from Triple Fast. Nothing too impressive there girls I'm afraid! So today we go to Vail; it should be fun if I could only squeeze in a nap somewhere. Then we get to have a couple days at home to do our laundry and shoot some pool with friends and then back onto the road with Hagfish and Menthol. Well I'm gonna go try to sleep on the plane. See you on the road.... GREG
Hey guys,
Well I'm still here, but after writing that last report I went to send it, and much to my dismay, I left my modem cord at home. I must have forgotten it in my 4am stupored rush to catch our flight to Dallas and the beginning of the tour. I didn't realize how addicted to the internet I was until I couldn't get linked to it. Our road manger who nicknamed me "online boy" on our last U.S. tour is having fun at my expense watching me roll around in the agony of online withdrawl. So anyway, our shows have been great! Last night in St. Petersberg the crowd sang along to Santa Monica so loud that I plugged my ears. It was an outside show and I can't belive what racket we must've made in downtown St. Petersberg. When we arrived at our hotel there was a Star Trek weekend convention going on and it was so surreal to stumble in after our 14 hr drive from New Orleans and walk right into a bunch of fully dressed up Klingons going to the Klingon dance.. Whoa hoa, now that's a party! Needless to say, none of us went. So as I continue my quest for a modem cord I will kep you all updated and send these reprts a little late, but please have some sympathy for me and my struggle to kick my online habit. Till later, GREG
Well, right now I am 30,000 feet up in the air flying from NYC to Boston, (our second time in Bean-town in five days.) We just left MTV's studio where we filmed an acoustic version of Heartspark$ for Kennedy's Alternative nation. I know a lot of people don't like Kennedy, but I think she's grand! It's always fun to see her because we all sit around and talk about Portland and her days of going to school with our ex-road manager. Apparently he beat her out of 1st chair flute in band, but she has let by-gones be by-gones so it's all good!
later that night...
Tonight's show was great! Art even broke the steel buckle on the strap of his guitar when he jumped up in the air and came down on it. The show was an all ages show and those are always the best because of the crowd's enthusiasm. Boston is always a favorite place to play and there is a lot of support for us here, plus we get to visit the Salem Witch museum in Salem which has a horrible presentation for $4.50 in an old church that in a sick, bored-on-tour way we have come to enjoy and look forward to. Tonight we played "Pale Green Stars" and even "Sexual Life" (which we haven't played in a while). Afterwards we hung out and talked; this is my favorite part of what we do other than the time onstage, and got to meet a lot of cool people.
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