Aging with dignity is especially hard for rock- and other kinds of musicians. Look at Keith Richards, as the prime example of the survivor of the Rock’n’Roll circus, who took a couple of decades to find an aged alter ego for his personae that is not a caricature of his younger self. Eric Schrody, aka Everlast, as everybody knows didn’t get so much time. A heart attack has made him find a new way to keep on quickly. And now he is a wiser, more content man. Silver hair and loose shirt over a evidently wider waistline are fitting him well. And there are still his mighty thick underarms covered with tattoos that show that he was able to throw punches aimed at lifting somebody of his feet. And that he did. These days he looks like a mixture of a long time convict and a mid western, working gentle-man. Whitey Ford still sings the blues, but not so much out of aggression anymore, but from the experienced perspective of reconciliation with the evils of the world.

On stage there is just him with changing guitars and three other musicians. A keyboarder / organ player that lays down a grooving soul organ as well as hip hop sample sirens. Then there is a sideman that switches from guitar to bass as if nothing could bother him, able to play southern boogie solos as well as funky slap bass, including faking Santana on those places where necessary. And of course a drummer, that shows that there is a significant difference between a guy playing drumloops from his computer and a real person getting funky. The basic rock outfit, no light show, no effects, no nothing. Just the songs and the people, and it works. For over two hours and with two encores Everlast brings the crowd to ecstatic cheers, screaming and clapping. And all of that without the revenant hip hop codes so prevalent on his records.

It is true that Everlast plays very simple music. A beat, a chord-progression of three or four chords that gets repeated without end (want to play Black Jesus? Here it is: G-A#-Aminor-F, repeat ad infinitum and sing-rap over it...), and on every other song a chorus. But what they heck, these songs also work. They touch the listener, they make him groove and give him a little something to feel cool alongside with. On his latest CD he covers „Folsom Prison Blues“ by Johnny Cash in this manner, and it works. There is no refrain on Folsom Prison Blues, either and it is a song mostly hammered together with lines that sound cool. The wailing, the whistle, it is all there in the cover version, only the beat is not the chika-boom, but Everlasts patented drumbeat. Actually, he reminds me somewhat of Tony Joe White, a cool american working man (who doesn’t work, because he is a musician... oh, the paradoxes!), playing his licks, a little swamp in the heart, a lot of soul in the voice. Some of the best songs of Tony Joe White consist of only one chord also. Maybe it is just the organ doing tricks in my mind, but it is cool and I enjoy it, so that counts.

Everlast gives the audience all the hits mixed with lesser known and new songs. At one moment he takes off his guitar and while a well known beat and a siren-like sample start up half of the hall goes crazy. Jesus, he really does „Jump Around“. It is as if I am twenty again. I see a picture of student-kids jumping around like crazy in a sleeping room in a student’s home at a little party I have been to about two decades back! I can’t say why he did it, but the smile in his face as he looks into the audience after the song gives me the impression as if he liked it. Give them some, get a lot back. On another note, I remember that this is the same place I saw Nirvana play on their Nevermind-tour back in 1991. I am getting pretty old pretty fast.

Finally he reserves „What’s it like“ for the last song in the second encore, going through introducing the musicians with lengthy solo-opportunities, and for one this bland and overused rock ritual doesn’t seem trite. People cheer on the players as they do their solos, everybody seems to enjoy themselves. Maybe because they can see real musicians do their thing on stage, without votings, castings, dancers, light effects, shows and special guests. All in all the show is eventless, not even a lot of talk, but it is one of the best I have seen this year. It has great songs and characters on stage making real music. Am I just old and nostalgic thinking that this is the way it used to be twenty years ago (see above) and that it is better this way because I don’t want to get used to „whoever’s next superstar“-supershow? Or is it because real and honest music will always beat pre-formulated antics, no matter how big the production is? I guess, it all boils down to a matter of personal aesthetics formed by your interests and experiences. Earlier that evening, Everlast mentions something on stage about how bad things are in the USA for live musicians, people not even wanting to pay any more to see people play music live. He will be back next year, he promises, and instantly I think, I’d like to be there again.

Georg Cracked, December 2008