It was a cold old night at the de-furbished Palais. Apparently, parts of it have been torn down already. It was cold enough that my toes noticed the breeze as I sat while watching the crowd pour in – ranging from fourteen- to sixteen-year-olds (making us feel old) to older, less excitable music fans. It must be mentioned that a fair portion of last night’s audience were kids who were drawn to the band by their music’s turn on The O.C. I’m sure it has been a great stepping-stone for Evermore , but they deserve better. These are some talented boys and I’d hate to see them languish in the “girly rock” pile.
To my delight, as the lights went down and the Evermore symbol came up, a choir erupted for to the strains of ‘Across the Universe’. I’m a big fan of both choirs and the Beatles – this was going to be good! Takes on the songs from Real Life were both more soulful and more rocking than the album versions. I don’t know how the O.C. fans fared, but I was thrilled.
There was a great deal of singing along from the crowd, from the opening ‘I’ll Never Let You Go’ to the closing ‘Only One I See’, and that’s always such an awing experience – that sense of the crowd as one entity, swaying in unison to music that speaks to them. It’s not often that I feel kinship with fifteen-year-olds these days, but Evermore made that happen. Said fifteen-year-olds, of course, went nuts when they played ‘It’s Too Late’ (better known to us as “Oh, that Ride On song!”).
The light and the sound were top-notch (a relief as the support acts had been a little patchy). The balance was just right which doesn’t always happen – we could hear the banter just as well as the singing, and both were clearly audible. Too often we’ve seen gigs where the drums or the guitar were too loud for audience interaction so kudos to the techs. The lights were similarly brilliant, at one point (during a new song) bathing the entire stage in red as the band froze and the music swelled and echoed… I confess, that was my moment of the night.
The set list alternated masterfully between well known songs and more edgy stuff, occasionally throwing in the odd number that showcased both musical and song-writing talent. The structure managed to keep things interesting and there was never a moment where Evermore lost the crowd, which speaks volumes for their new-found (to me, at least) comfort and maturity as a band.
Before heading off pre-encore, the choir joined in on an awesome version of ‘Light Surrounding You’. Words cannot express how much better than the album version this was – soulful, and simply excellent. The encore itself contained a Beatles song (‘Sergeant Pepper’s’ to celebrate the 40th anniversary), which was well-played: true enough to the original not to make me scream, but also definitely theirs.
Afterwards my companion and I reflected that Evermore are a rock band with enough of a pop leaning to make them commercially viable, but not so much so that they’ll lose their “harder” fans. Live, they’re a lot more rocking and impressive than their album would suggest and they’re certainly catchy enough to have had me singing snippets of their music all the way home.
The only thing we would have changed about the gig was the venue. We love the Palais as much as anyone and it’s nice to have seen it out on a high. But the band has grown to a point where they have a large, young, commercial audience – and that audience wants to dance. There’s not much space in front of the seats at the Palais for boogying but we all managed!
In conclusion? Somewhere along the line, I forgot that my toes were freezing and I think it may have been as early as the second song.
