Saturday morning, one of several trailers backed up to the dock for unloading, so I pounced. The first guy to get out looked to be in a rush, but I got to ask him who the band was. He told me, "Everlife." He ran off, and the next guy to get out stood around a bit longer. After apologizing that I'd never heard of the band, I asked him what kind of music I should expect out of Everlife. "Christian," he said, with an unblinking, serious face. Then he grinned, and added, "...rock." I asked if he could be a little more specific, and he pondered a bit, then, repeated, "Rock." Then the girls in the band got out, and as they were standing there, shaking off their ride, I asked them about their musical style. They looked at one another, then Amber (the eldest) shrugged and said, "Rock," as she looked at the others for affirmation. They looked at each other, then nodded in agreement.
A bit later, while the guy I talked to was setting up Everlife's merchandise table, I got some more info on the group. In the first place, "the guy" was Dad to the three girls. I asked, again, to whom the group might compare for sound, and another guy standing near me picked up a CD, glanced at it and knowingly said, "Oh, they sound like Zoegirl." And he put the CD back down. I know I can't hear a CD through my fingertips. I've always been taught not to judge a book by its cover, and I'm finding that a band's sound is often not discernable by the appearance of its jacket.
Everlife looks like they could easily be a teen-pop girlgroup striving for a sound like Zoegirl's first couple albums. Their stage presence is a bit girlgroupish, and they do some harmonies that almost touch on girlgroupishness, but that's about where it ends. These sisters can ROCK!
I'm still trying to pin down their sound, but imagine Barlowgirl's "Never Alone" and Zoegirl's "You Get Me." Then throw in Evanescence-like instrumentals, an occasional Rebecca St. James squeek and some Joy Williams' "By Surprise"-enthusiasm and you might get an idea of their sound. "Like Zoegirl"? Maybe their heaviest stuff, but not teen-poppy like their early works. Like Evanescence? They do have their intense, hard and heavy moments, but there's their beautiful harmonies. I also heard hints of FFH, Jennifer Knapp, and even Bruce Springsteen (in the instrumentals, of course). As concise as I think I can be, I'd have to say, Everlife is power-pop with faint girlgroup flavors, but it's not the typical cutesy-sweet girlgroupishness.
