Eve 6: Songs About Girls by Benjy Eisen “I never really cared about the bass,” admits Max Collins from a hotel room somewhere in Chicago. His band, Eve 6, is in the middle of a summer tour, opening up for Bon Jovi. Collins plays bass. He’s also the lead singer; a duty which he embraces fully on tour, where he has a hired gun handling bass duties, so he can be free to “flop around the stage and be an idiot.” Opening up for Bon Jovi is a little bit of a different gig for Eve 6 than what they’re used to. For one, there’s the obvious generational gap — Bon Jovi have been around for over 16 years, with an average median age of 42. (“I thought he was the shit when I was like ten,” says Collins, 22.) Then there’s the size difference — Eve 6 usually sells out theaters in the 1000 seat range. Bon Jovi sells out stadiums. But there are similarities there as well — both Bon Jovi and Eve 6 currently have albums on the charts, videos on MTV, singles on the radio, and they both put on famously high energy rock shows. And while Bon Jovi offered the best of what was happening in popular rock in the ’80s, Eve 6 offers a nice slice of the current crop. With Bon Jovi it’s ’80s rock. With Eve 6 “it’s essentially a punk-rock show,” Collins explains. “It’s a little bit weird doing that to older folks who are sitting down,” he says, but the audiences have been receptive and the shows have been cool. Except for opening night in Milwaukee. “The first show was a pretty hilariously nightmarish story. It was the first day for Bon Jovi, too, so they spent a lot of time working out kinks and stuff like that.” As a result Eve 6 didn’t get a chance to soundcheck. Right before they went on stage, “the production manager comes up to us and he’s like ‘The monitor system isn’t working and it probably isn’t going to be working for awhile. So you can either go up without monitors or not go up at all.’ So we’re like ‘Fuck it — let’s do it.’ We go up there and not only do we not have our stage sound [our monitors], but the guys kick into the song, and it’s nothing but amp sound. I go to start to sing and nothing is coming out of the PA. We’re standing up there in front of 30,000 people with no sound whatsoever. I just sat down on the ledge and started to laugh.” An appropriate reaction for a band whose critics claim take themselves too seriously. “Every band in the world thinks that they’re wonderful and that’s got to be like that or they wouldn’t mean it and then what are they worth, you know? But we take our music seriously, definitely.” As for taking themselves too seriously — don’t count on it. And as for delivering any sort of message with their songs, Collins laughs and says there is none. “They’re just, you know … songs about girls.” Eve 6 was formed when Collins and guitarist Jon Siebels started playing together at the end of their freshman year in high school, in La Crescenta, California, right outside of Los Angeles. Just two years later, when Collins was 17, Siebels 16, they signed with RCA Records. “We maybe played three shows with the line-up we had before we did the first record,” marvels Collins. For their senior year of high school, RCA gave them a salary of $95 a week just to earn a high school diploma and spend time developing as musicians. It was a wise investment on RCA’s behalf. Their self-titled debut album, released in 1998, went platinum on the strength of a hit single (“Inside Out.”) Their follow-up, Horrorscope, has already spurned two hits (“Promise” and, currently, “Here’s To The Night”). Horrorscope reveals Eve 6 as a rapidly maturing and evolving band. “I mean, we’re just learning how to make records still,” says Collins, “We didn’t really have a specific direction for Horrorscope, it just seemed to happen. I listen to it now and I’m like, you know, there’s some serious ’80s pop stuff going on here, some more groovier rock songs than the first record, but I don’t know. That’s kind of hard to tag. But the bottom line is we’re a rock band with melodies and that’s what we do.” Still, in keeping with the punk-rock ethic, Eve 6 is a band all about their live show. “It’s an inclusive show. It’s like the kids who are at our shows are part of the show. And that’s kind of the bands that Jon and I grew up going to see. It wasn’t much about there’s this band on a pedestal. It was more about everybody coming together and feeling that connection.” Doing a summer tour as openers for Bon Jovi will certainly allow Eve 6 to make that connection with a whole new audience. Although, as Collins points out, “I think in order to really get a complete look at Eve 6 would be to see us in our element, in a tiny club packed with frenzied kids.” Regardless, Eve 6 isn’t exactly watering down their explosive act for the Bon Jovi tour: “If you come early and see Eve 6, you’re going to see a fun, energetic rock show and a six-foot-four redhead guy with tattoos flopping around like an idiot. We have fun when we play live, you know, we really put everything into it. That’s what we center our whole day around, that’s what we signed up for, that’s our gig and thank god we love it. We really try to show that every night on stage and I think people really appreciate that about our show. They can tell that we’re enjoying ourselves.” Eve 6 will open for Bon Jovi at Hersheypark Stadium on July 22. Tickets are available now by calling 534-3911 or via ticketmaster.com.