You never know what to expect out of a guy like Eef Barzelay. If you’ve been following the rumors around his band, Clem Snide, you know that unpredictability is his strong suit. No, scratch that… more like his suit of armor. Eef thrives on faking us out! He lies to us. He stops mid sentence, turns his back to us and turns around in a completely different character. His songs stop suddenly, changing genre, jolting us from easy-peasy mellowness into hard-rockin’, guitar-driving noise. Don’t go pretending you have Eef all figured out, you’ll only goad him on to more chaos. I can feel it just from the glint in his eye when he’s on stage, struggling to tune his guitar. He’s daring us to pin him down.
Last night a packed room of college-aged, 30-somethings, and die-hard music fans (we were the greying weirdos who were up way past our bedtimes, trying to not stand out too much in the youthful crowd) were enthralled with the band Clem Snide. With the wonderfully talented Brendan Fitzpatrick on bass playing straight man to his occasional stand-up show, Eef gave us the kind of comedic genius that cannot begin to disguise the real talent laying beneath it. While he sways and falls and pretends to make up words and phrases, you notice that none of it is off key. None of it is out of time enough to throw anyone off. None of his machinations are unplanned, unrehearsed, I’m guessing. This is the kid who practiced those funny faces in the bathroom mirror for hours and hours. He’s all grown up now and damn that kid can sing and write lyrics that make you ache.
Yet with all that showmanship comes real tenderness. Songs about love and relationships and betrayal and death call for such nonsense on stage. I’m devastated when it turns out that his heart breaking explanation, about an aged couple, one dying of cancer, for “Born A Man,” really is true. I’m elated when he belts out “Ice Cube” with all its witticisms, and melodramatic tragedy, building it to a climatic end. The show, like the man (?) is a rollercoaster of experience, he works the crowd, pausing between songs to banter and endlessly tune that guitar. “This new album has a lot of tunings on it” he claims, each song requiring some adjustment. But I wonder if it’s not just Eef taking a breather between performances, between what must be exhausting episodes of emotional intensity. You really can’t just stand still and sing words like;
she asked him,
“why can we not be together
why is it we have to part
why did you leave with a stranger
when i am revealing my heart?”because I love the unknown
I love the unknown
he says he loves the unknown
because I love the unknown
I love the unknown
he says he loves the unknown
Yes, “I Love The Unknown” was a definite highlight of this show, but there were many highlights, and this crowd ate them up. It was great to see the faces of the band when they saw the size of the crowd, the smile that spread across them. Chicago welcomed back Clem Snide with warmth, forgiving them for being away four, long years. Songs from older albums were sung loudly by the audience. At one point in the show, the drummer, Ben Martin was announced single and ready to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. His skills with the sticks surely should have garnered him a high price, not to mention his rugged good looks. In between songs, the crowd shouted out requests, all denied by Eef, he was running this show, don’t forget. I’ve recreated the setlist from my notes (yeah I’m the geeky girl in the back with her iphone out at the beginning of every song). In the process, I discovered that the opening song was a debut! It was grand! It was quintessentially Clem Snide. It was punchy and a little spiteful and a little sad, as I remember, and very, very, very good. The working title is “Walmart” and if you see them do it again, let me know what you think of it, and what it turns into, ok?!? Clem Snide is hitting the road with this new album, college radio is declaring it a real winner! All the big blogs have reviewed Hungry Bird and loved it, you will too!
- “Walmart”
- “Let’s Explode”
- “Tuesday, October 24th”
- “Something Beautiful”
- “Born A Man”
- “Yip/Jump Music”
- “Fight Song Melody”
- “Collapse”
- “Ice Cube”
- encore – “Ballad of Bitter Honey” (acoustic)
- “Mike Kalinsky”
- “Me No”
- “I Love The Unknown”
- “Man In The Mirror”
The running joke of the evening was “25 things about Clem Snide” in a kind of Facebook fashion. Eef was to give us a clearer picture of who this Clem Snide guy really was, and was he really Eef? In the end, he declared it a hopeless exercise. No one who loves unpredictability as much as Eef Barzelay could give us a list of 25 things that define this band. And none of us even wanted one. The beauty is in the surprise of not knowing what’s coming next.
Please come back to Chicago, Clem Snide. We promise to continue to be amazed and surprised and enthralled with you. And bring that gorgeous bass player, Brendan along too, ok? Watching him play was a little slice of heaven for this tart, xoxox
Born A Man mp3Clem Snide Hungry Bird …. buy it!
Clem Snide on MySpace check here for tour dates, darlings
Clem Snide’s own webpage a beautiful site with lots of goodies
Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!
I love Clem Snide, found them through KEXP, my favourite is Joan Jett of Arc
Well hello, m’dear. No, I’ve not abandoned the “blogosphere” for good, just until I can put my dissertation to bed. Oh yeah, baby; 10000 words on “folk music”, that’s how cool I am. Anyway, I like this new look you’ve got going on. And dear old Eef is a treasure, isn’t he! I stumbled upon a solo show of his almost by accident a couple of years ago and have been besotted ever since.
I love this band. Big thank you to Mr Toad for this one. I don’t like thanking him for much but ever since he brought them to my attention I’ve been hooked. It’s all good. Great review.
drew! I wish they’d done Joan Jett of Arc! But damn, I was happy with this show anyhow
Thanks for stopping by, hun xoxo
Tom, oh I see how it goes, we all fall by the wayside in favor of real life, eh? hahah! you go, darling! xoox
Euan, yes, we do have to give Matthew his due when it calls for it, eh? I have to say, I’d have not gone to this show at all if it’d not been for him and DC raving about Eef. So glad of it tho! Cheers, luv xoxo
from Agnes, who can’t seem to log in… is anyone else having troubles??? odd, I’ve fixed the settings over and over, but I know JC had some problems too, please do let me know, darlings!
Sounds like you had a hell of a time! You can definitely tell that you love these guys. I really enjoyed reading it even though I had no idea who you were talking about – and that is what makes a top review.
Hope you are well
Agnes
Nice review of the show. Glad to know there are other people out there to keep on supporting Clem Snide. If we don’t support artists like this they may not be able to make a living at it much longer. Then they will have to get a shitty real job like the rest of us…leaving us without a chance to Love the known or Unknown.
Thanks LR, so true, so sadly true! xoxo
Dear Tart,
Wonderful review of the show, nice read. I am jealous, having been a Clem Snide fan for a few years now. Would love to see them live. We don’t get many good bands done here in Melboring Florida…
I saw Clem Snide as a support act a few years back, and I actually thought that was his name. I seem to remember it was just Eef though, solo, the rest of the band couldn’t afford the airfare or something.
I bet his Man In The Mirror is great. The Christina Aguilera cover he does is a favourite of mine.
Merz, thanks
Melboring is sooooo dreadful, I remember it well… xx
Rol, ya know, I hardly knew it was a MJ song at all, the way Eef did it was so very fantastic. And yeah, he went off on his own solo tour/albums for a bit and is now back with a band and denying all those rumors that Clem Snide is dead, hahaha, thanks for stopping by, as always xx