Alexakis, founder of the Portland band Everclear in 1992, has assembled a new cast of players, thrown off some demons, and is ready to rock.

    That will happen at 8 p.m. Saturday at CMU's Finch Fieldhouse in Mount Pleasant.

    Admission is free for CMU students if tickets are obtained in advance, and for Siblings Weekend participants. General admission is $15, discounted for CMU staff. (Go to centralboxoffice.cmich.edu or call (888) CMU-0111.)

    Everclear had been scheduled to appear in December, but CMU's Program Board decided to wait for Siblings Weekend -- avoiding a conflict with exam time.

    In a phone interview from his Oregon home this week, Alexakis was curious about the location of Saturday's gig: was it near Frankenmuth, he wondered, or Jackson? He has friends in both places. Several of his siblings were born in Michigan, when his parents lived in the Detroit area in the 1950s.

    "That's where I got my love of Vernor's Ginger Ale," he said.

    And of rock 'n' roll? "I think I just got that out of the air, everywhere. I came from the 1960s, when every white boy loved the Beatles."

    He lives in Portland now, where he enjoys custody of his daughter on alternate weeks.

    "I'm still in bankruptcy," he said, "and I've got lawsuits going on with two ex-wives who, unfortunately, have become friends."

    Friends with him? "Oh, no. Friends with each other. My behavior, back in the day, made sure that they won't ever be friends with me.

    "But I'm in therapy, working on me." And while he changes, he's also changed the band, wholesale.

    "Without pointing any fingers, there were some personality issues, some drug and alcohol issues, some issues of musical direction. They wanted out, and I wanted to move on. It wasn't friendly," he said of the breakup, "but at least it was amicable.

    "It's always been my thing anyway," he said of the band, "any of the projects that I've called Everclear since 1992. There's been seven or eight guys in the band."

    He's solid on the merits of his current band: bass player Sam Hudson, keyboardist Josh Crawley, lead guitar Davey French and drummer Brett Snyder.

    Alexakis was the main guitar-slinger in previous Everclear lineups, but he heaped praise on French.

    Snyder was the band's drum technician -- until he sat down at the kit himself one day during a warmup "and just blew me away," says Alexakis.

    The audience, he said, "will see and hear something different" from previous Everclear shows. "They'll hear real music."

    "They'll see a happier Art," he said. "I still have my gristle and my aggression, but I'm a happier person in a lot of ways."

    He credits that to closure obtained through a divorce, and resolution of the hassles within the previous band lineup. "Now I'm feeling really creative."

    "We have a new record coming out, 'Welcome to the Drama Show,'" and while it's getting its last touches, at least a few of the songs will make it onto Saturday's set list.

    New Everclear music, he said, is a bit more acoustic, a bit bluesier. "We have keyboards, both a (Hammond) B-3 and piano. It just sounds warm and good to me.

    "I've done the big guitar thing; it's just not the palette I want to paint with now."

    Portland is known for its musical exports, especially grunge and punk. Despite a CMU release describing his band as grunge-punk, Alexakis said, "I've never considered us grunge, and in fact I wouldn't know grunge if I saw it. And I've never considered us punk, although you can't deny the punk influence.

    "And I'm not that enamored with white boy indie rock," he said.

    And then, he's been working with and producing hip hop music.

    So, what is Everclear?

    "We're a rock 'n' roll band," says Alexakis. "That's what we grew up with. It encompasses everything.

    "We've been off the radar in a lot of ways," he said. "and it's a challenge to come back. But I'm feeling hungry again, and this band is feeling hungry; that's an excellent place to be."

    An excellent place to be -- like CMU's Finch Fieldhouse Saturday, if you're hungry for some rock 'n' roll.