The Civic Tour featuring Everclear, American Hi-Fi, Mayfield Four and Flipp

With this bill, Art Alexakis' predilection for pre-MTV album rock has never been more evident, though it comes at a time when Everclear appears to be in the throes of an identity crisis.

The trio's recent releases, the poppy airplay-whore Songs From An American Movie, Vol. One: Learning How to Smile and the collection of forced rockers, Songs From An American Move, Vol. Two: Good Time For A Bad Attitude, find them struggling against the sell-out by attempting to serve two masters; the stalwart fan base won via their coarsely rocking debut, World of Noise, and the masses who enlisted when Everclear's keen pop sensibilities bubbled up on discs nuber two (1995's Sparkle and Fade) and three (1997's So Much For The Afterglow).

A smarter move would have been to replace the three or four throwaways from ...Vol. One with the same amount of keepers from ...Vol Two and made a single kickass album. Of course, two records means twice the green, which may well have been the point (did I mention that this tour is sponsored by Honda?).

Rewind to Alexakis' AOR-oriented ear - a quality which almost serves to eclipse his apparent greed:

Three young openers on the bill all bow to the '70s bands who made rock cool in the first place, and may spearhead a return to rock-for-release over rock-for-therapy.

American Hi-Fi (fronted by ex-Veruca Salt/Letters to Cleo drummer Stacy Jones) plays shimmering, Cheap Trick-inspired anthems that likely impress their influence.

Spokane's Mayfield Four have exchanged the Pearl Jammy/classic rock sound of the debut, Fallout, for a sound largely indebted to late-80s hard rock and metal on their soph disc, Second Skin (Epic).

Oughta go great with Flipp, the band that may well steal the bill with their Cheap Trick-meets-KISS rock spectacle. The Minneapolis quartet adheres to the show-is-where-it's-at philosophy, combining outrageous costumes, makeup, four distinct personalities, over-the-top theatrics and acrobatics, props, (among them, bassist Freaky Useless' jet-pack) and shameless self-promo (Flipp Cereal and Flipp trading cards) with the potent cocktail of glam, punk and arena rock contained on their new release, Blow It Out Your Ass.

And that title, given Everclear's current path of commodification and disallowing the fact that Alexakis hand-picked Flipp to open this tour seems oddly appropriate, doesn't it?