Everclear, Soul Coughing Heat Up Sno-Core Concert

In pop culture, the concept of “extreme” became mainstream about, well, the minute someone started using the term to promote pop culture concepts.

Indeed, the scene at the Sno-Core Tour concert celebrating extreme winter sports Saturday at the Hollywood Palladium bespoke a fad that has peaked and is now on the downhill run. Attendance was moderate (the event already had been moved from the larger Universal Amphitheatre), as was interest in the snowboard and skiing booths.

Everclear and Soul Coughing, topping an eclectic bill also featuring rapper Redman and inventive turntable artist DJ Spooky, better hope it’s not contagious. Both, after spending time on the periphery of the pop world, have now made it to the mainstream.

Post-punk rockers Everclear’s “So Much for the Afterglow” album has sold around 2 million copies, still going strong after 16 months on the charts. Soul Coughing’s left-of-the-dial beatbox beatniks approach has also found a place on pop radio via the quirkily catchy single “Circles.”

Saturday, though, both acts affirmed that there’s more to them than pop appeal. Everclear’s Art Alexakis, despite being under the weather, proved to be someone with something to say and an entertaining way of saying it, enthusiastically fueling his songs’ messages of overcoming problems and gaining hope.

And the trio, supplemented live by three other players, added wallop and range to the recorded sound. Where Alexakis comes up short of being a major figure is in his failure to reach beyond or enhance the songs’ content on stage--though he’s certainly connecting with fans, as evidenced by the massive sing-alongs on hits (“Father of Mine,” “Everything to Everyone”) and even less radio-familiar tunes.

New York’s Soul Coughing has a gimmick--Michael Doughty’s ironically flat, hipster-geek narrative verse set against jazzy quasi-hip-hop beats--that can get old fast. But here the crew played with it, stretching the songs out, adding dynamics to illustrate the oddball tales and observations into colorful tableaux.

Redman, clearly sensing that this wasn’t his crowd, merely relied on hip-hop cheerleading cliches and rituals guaranteed to get some response.