Bringing Los Angeles based rapper/ folk singer /bluesman Everlast to Lethbridge has been a long time coming for promoter James Nisihma. He has working on the show for about four years. It finally came to fruition, Sept. 20 at Average Joes.
He had a sold out, very loud crowd whooping and hollering to an intense set by Everlast who began the show by snarling to the lighting tech to turn the lights down and became angrier as it wasn’t done.
He had a tight band including a keyboardist, drummer and a bassist/ lead guitarist who sounded pretty good despite an extremely bass heavy mix which also had extreme amounts of reverb on the vocals.
It made Everlast’s gritty, heartfelt lyrics almost impossible to decipher, which is a shame as they are often quite poetic.
Much of the set included tracks from his latest CD “Songs of the Ungrateful Living.” He didn’t say much to the audience as he growled out his lyrics in his gravelly Tom Waitsish voice, other than to say something about Iraq and the importance of taking care of your family to introduce his new song “Little Miss U.S.A.”
A few of his hits were sprinkled into the mix including “White Trash Beautiful,” which was a highlight.
His setlist included his big hit “What It’s Like,” and his cover of “Folsom Prison Blues. The encore was to include “Put Your Lights On” and possibly “Jump Around,” going all the way back to his early days with House of Pain.
