1990s

Warning: I had an eye infection for over a week, and it has prevented me from spending too much time on this post, but I wanted to commit to my Friday deadline.
The 1990s were what I grew up with. I was born and raised in the last decade of the 19th century. During this time I was influenced by the culture of the time. I enjoyed my childhood and there is so much nostalgia from it, but one of the greatest gifts the 90s gave me was some of my first and most favorite songs of all time. I've gotten my 90s on a few times, but one of the best times was a concert my friend Cat and her boyfriend James invited me and my main gal pal Alex to go to, and party like it's 1999. Down in San Diego for a new tour called Summerland

 It was a 90s nostalgia festival tour-thingy with the bands Everclear, Gin Blossoms, Marcy Playground, Lit, and Sugar Ray. That was a a pretty awesome -funtacular- show.  Sounds like a fun show right? Maybe if your in your mid 20s and aren't lame.
   To be fair and at an actual 'fair'.  This was my 3rd time seeing Everclear but this time felt like the third was in fact the charm. As I mentioned in my post last week I first saw Everclear when I was too young to really get what was going on. But I get it now, I remember the days when Everclear flooded the radio, same with all those bands.

And then the next time I chanced upon Everclear was at Jack's 6th Show. This is an annual concert series put on by 93.1 Jack FM.

KCBS-FM Jack FM is really disappointing me these days. They started off as something new and fresh and even quirky on the radio. I mean at least in my radio pre-sets.
Which Is 95.5KLOS,   ALT98.7,    100.3The Sound (Which is a radio station that resorted to bashing KLOS publicly, only to basically turn into a pre Heidie and Frank KLOS.)
And then there's K-Earth101.1 (god bless them for trying with the worst morning show on my pre-sets. And sometimes just playing music that is too old and not that classic) To be honest I got down with Uncle Joe in the morning on The Sound. But these days the only time the morning radio has something for me is on the weekends.

Okay, back to the original track of thought. Jack FM once a new fresh replacement for he radio frequency 93.1 once sporting the Arrow931 face. Jack FM started to have great annual concerts. All was good in the world however since the beginning, the station has truly managed to take a steady nose dive and same goes for its shows. When your marketing angle is "You're listening to 93.1 Jack FM broadcasting live from a dumpy little building in beautiful downtown Culver city." "Jack FM, playing what we want." So no matter how bad they become they never claimed to be anything other than the worst. And if you don't like it they just as best assume you can go screw yourself.

Back to what produced my Jack FM rant. The particular Jack Show, Jacks 6th September 10th 2015 had Heart and Def Leppard headlining. Everyone else was shoved on a ridiculous side stage that had no room whatsoever to hold a large audience and the sound set up was terrible. There you had Sir Mix Alot, Marcy Playground, Dramarama, and Everclear on a side stage and then Heart and Def Leppard who were conveniently touring with each other anyways on the main stage. The execution of the show was pathetic compared to my experience at Jacks's 5th show, which for some reason had every band on the main stage and managed to not piss everyone off. Jacks' 5th show line up: The Sweet, Modern English, Young MC, Vanilla Ice, The Fixx, Skid Row, Night Ranger, The Cult, Steve Miller Band. I haven't been to any other Jack FM concerts but after the 6th, I was really over it.
But....the 5th show truly was a great time. There were many middle aged adults drinking and and on drugs. There was a woman in her 30s who was licking strangers near me. The audience was out of hand. It was a surreal experience, It was as fun to watch the audience as the band.

The third time I saw Eveclear felt right especially with the lineup. Not only did I get to see Everclear, I got to see Sugar Ray for the first time, which was a really fun show. Mark McGrath is such a ham but he really knows how to have fun with an audience. Gin Blossoms was cool too, they rocked the sound 'Hey Jealousy' which is honestly all I knew of their material. Itwas really something to hear My Own Worst Enemy be performed by Lit, a song that I've always loved, and know word for word. Honestly I wish Art Alexakis (lead singer of Everclear) sang into the microphone better he always seems to pull away from it. Which just cuts out the sound. It was more neat to see Everclear than anything, but the performance honestly lacked in areas.
   There's been a lot of changes with that Everclear lineup through the years. It's part of why they faded away, there was a butting of heads. I sometimes wonder if Art bumps heads with a lot of people. For example, Art invited Sugar Ray to tour with them for the Summerland festival but due to conflicts of interest, Sugar Ray went on to start  Under The Sun while Art and Everclear split off to do Summerland. The difference is the genres really. Summerland tours with a bunch of Alt. Rock bands. Whereas Under The Sun is a more upbeat vibe.

Mandalay Bay Las Vegas, NV

The year after Summerland me and Alex actually saw Under The Sun waist deep in a warm pool slow cooked all day in the warm delicious Las Vegas sun.
   The Mandalay Bay puts on a summer concert series where various bands play poolside.
Well, this particular lineup was Sugar Ray, Gin Blossoms, Smash Mouth. A dynamic 90s nostalgia explosion in a beautiful Las Vegas setting. Nothing like sipping on a Budweiser surrounded by people having a good pool party time.


Under The Sun tour will be cruising around this year with Better Than Ezra, Eve 6. Unkle Kraker, and Sugar Ray. I'm not sure I'll get to see that one,
 
Summerland is still going but I'm not that interested. Toadies, American Hi-Fi, Fuel, and Everclear.
I mean Unkle Kraker's got some great songs.
and Sugar Ray>Everclear. But Everclear is definitely a very important band in my music library.