Eef Barzelay @ Mercury Lounge, NYC [5/6/06]

After a ridiculously crazy month in April, the last week or two have been relatively slow in terms of concerts (although it's about to pick up again). I unfortunately missed Le Firm at the Knitting Factory on Saturday -- though I swear I'll make their next show on June 21st at Pianos -- but I did manage to catch Eef Barzelay at Mercury Lounge.

There's a good chance that you've never heard of Eef Barzelay or his band, Clem Snide. That's unfortunate. In my opinion, they're one of the best so-called "Americana" bands around today. Their strength, for me at least, lies in their ability to meld a great, heartbreaking melody with some of the most clever, interesting lyrics I've ever heard. The band's last album, End of Love, was one of my favorites of 2005.

The band's lead singer, Eef Barzelay, is currently touring in support of his recent, excellent solo album, Bitter Honey, and hit Mercury Lounge this past weekend. I'd never seen either the band or Eef in concert before, and I was happy to see that Eef has a great stage presence. He was both charming and funny, and able to keep the audience alert and interested despite the length of the show (close to 2 hours!). And the songs -- both solo and Clem Snide songs -- sounded great. Personally, I thought the show went about 20 minutes longer than necessary, but I think Eef was just happy to have such a large, supportive audience, and didn't want the show to end. I can't blame him for that.

NOTE: I was going to insert some Clem Snide and Eef songs links here, but EZArchive is being a little bitch again today. I'll post them when the site decides to cooperate.

Onto the pics:





PS: This is apparently already my 200th post on this here blog. Well woopadeedoo!