Art Alexakis, the lead singer of Everclear, walked out onto the Lantz Arena stage Saturday night, smiled, and yelled “Are you guys ready to rock?”

Thousands of Eastern students and fans from around Illinois cheered back as Alexakis launched into a hour-and-a-half set of his band’s best-known hits and new material.

Saturday’s concert, featuring Everclear and opening act The Gelheads, was the first “big-name” concert at Eastern since a $5 concert fee for the University Board was passed last semester.

Eastern the latest stop on band’s college tour

Everclear is playing colleges and smaller venues this fall as they bicker with their label over the release of their new album, Slow Motion Daydream.

“It’s kind of a warm up tour for us,” said bassist Craig Montoya. “(We can) get out, test some songs.”

Alexakis said a crowd of around 2,000 to 3,000, like that at Saturday’s concert, was his ideal size for a concert.

“It feels like a club, but it’s a good size,” he said.

“It’s more like a sock hop in the gym,” said drummer Greg Ekland.

From Eastern, Everclear will travel to play a concert at Spring, Texas. They will wrap up the tour Nov. 10 in Peoria.

Alexakis said their new album will likely come out in February of next year.

The concert

Chicago-based punk band The Gelheads opened with several songs dealing with topics such as ex-girlfriends. Between songs, they tossed out numerous T-shirts and drumsticks to the crowd.

“I wish I was back in college,” said lead singer Frankie D’Angelo as he looked at the audience.

While many in the crowd liked the Gelheads, others thought they played for too long.

“The Gelheads should never play again,” said Jared Walter of Oglesby. “They separated the fans from Everclear for a good hour and 20 minutes.”

Everclear came out wrapped in mist from a fog machine and won loud cheers from the crowd.

The crowd responded especially loudly when Alexakis referred to Charleston disparagingly, but quieted down after Alexakis followed with “But you’re getting a decent education, and thank God for that.”

Montoya, meanwhile got a rise out of the crowd by repeatedly giving them the finger.

Alexakis later picked about 25 people from the audience to come up on stage. Dubbed the “Everclear dancers” by Alexakis, they crowded around the band members and danced to the song “Rock Star”.

“Big Band” A Big Event

Eastern students were excited that Everclear played at Eastern.

“I’m quite impressed that we got a band of such a caliber,” said Ben Marcy, a freshman undecided major. “I really didn’t expect to see anyone of such a standard.”

Others echoed his surprise.

“It’s awesome,” said Alison Personette, a sophomore elementary education major. “I’m excited they got a really big band.”

Many University of Illinois students and fans from around the state also attended the concert.

“I’m still shaking,” said Aubrey Walters, who drove three hours from Spring Valley, Illinois to see the show. “I’ve been trying to see (Everclear) for five years now.”

Other out-of-towners were impressed with the how close the performers were to the audience.

“Here (at Lantz Arena) you couldn’t have a bad seat,” said University of Illinois student Chris Anderson. “It was totally worth the drive.”

Fellow University of Illinois student Mark Clark agreed.

“I’ve been to high school basketball games with worse seating than this,” he said.

UB wants more big stars at Eastern

UB Concert Coordinator Donna Fernandez said that while the event was not a sellout, it was “a really good turnout for a first concert.”

While Fernandez said exact ticket sale statistics will not be available until later in the week, but about two-thirds of the floor was filled with people. The upper-level seats were about half-full.

Others were disappointed that more people did not show up.

“I can’t believe there wasn’t a bigger turnout,” said Amber Pearson, a junior political science major.

However, Fernandez felt the UB’s first big concert in a long time was a success.

“It was a lot more work than people imagine,” Fernandez said. “But to see it all come together on the last day (Saturday), it was great.”

Fernandez said that the Concert Committee is already working toward bringing another big-name band to Eastern next spring by talking to agents and planning a student poll to find which bands students want to see.

“We want to survey as many students as possible,” she said.