This concert is probably one of the more stellar bills to come to Madison, WI in quite some time. Without a doubt, they couldn't have come to a better venue; Luther's Blues has a wonderful setup and probably the best sound of any club in Madison. Even though it was a late Sunday night, the place was packed with anticipation from beginning to end.

I've never seen opening band Califone live before, and wasn't quite sure what to expect. I've had a limited amount of exposure to their music, which ranges from pretty straightforward, blues-y alt-country to much more experimental stuff. This range was very evident during their set, not only from song to song, but within songs as well. The opening number was an excellent example of the diversity of this band. After about five minutes of twangy, mellow rock that had me pretty sedated, the song suddenly transformed into a monstrous cacophony of sound that was amazingly beautiful and completely unexpected. The rest of the set went back and forth between these two extremes; the band would often warn us in advance what to expect- "here's a plain old blues number" or "here's something a little different." I was left very curious as to what exactly Califone's influences are, as they often sounded almost like two different bands. Overall though, I was quite impressed.

After what seemed like forever, Clem Snide took the stage, dressed sharply as always in their classy suits. Now, there are some bands that are only enjoyable live if you know their songs. Many times I've gone to see unfamiliar bands where all of their songs just blended together, making it difficult for me to truly enjoy the show. Luckily, Clem Snide is not one of those bands. I've never really gotten into Clem Snide's recorded material because I feel like it doesn't stack up to the way their music sounds live; Eef's vocal presentation is much more fascinating in person. Pretty much every song I know by Clem Snide I know because I've seen it performed live. Thus, even though I haven't even bothered to check out Clem Snide's newest album Soft Spot, I knew it didn't really matter and that I'd most likely enjoy whatever they played.

As usual, Clem Snide sounded great. Lead singer Eef Barzelay's voice is the highlight of the band for me, really strong and distinctive, and always clear. My friend was surprised and excited that she could actually hear all of the lyrics, which isn't usually the case with small club sound. Whether that's a testament to Eef's singing or the club's sound engineers, we can't be sure. It was fairly easy to tell which songs came off of Soft Spot; they were clearly the sweeter, less depressing songs, and they made up most of the beginning of the set. Crowd favorites such as Weird and Joan Jett of Arc also made it on to their set list, though they clearly steered away from Moment in the Sun, now forever known as "That Ed Song." One of the more uncomfortable moments I've ever experienced at a concert came when Eef dedicated a song to a couple in the audience who were celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary, inviting them to come up on stage while they played. Come on stage they did, where they began slow dancing before the song even started while everyone in the audience stared at them awkwardly. They continued for the length of the song, which, to be honest, I didn't think would ever end.

Uncomfortable moment aside, once again Clem Snide provided a sweet and entertaining performance, once more confirming the fact that I don't need to own any of their albums to still enjoy them as a band.