Concert Review: Clem Snide, the Heligoats, Wednesday, April 15, at the Record Bar

Last night’s visit from Nashville’s Clem Snide and Chicago’s Heligoats was one of those shows all too common in Kansas City: A famous-elsewhere indie act comes to our town and only a few people show up, resulting, for those who did turn out, in a concert dynamic that could go either way. The band could be pissed and cranky that no one came, or it could just say to hell with it, rock out and have fun.

With 18 years and six albums, including this year’s Hungry Bird, on its CV, and a frontman whose name is fairly well known — and fairly unforgettable — Eef Barzelay‘s critically acclaimed band should have drawn more than just one or two fans, a dozen or so curious folks and the dregs of the bar’s early evening Bob Walkenhorst hoedown. Fortunately, Barzelay and his band mates didn’t let it get them down.