oh do i have a chance? you're such a a beautiful girl

rather than build up to it, i'm just going to start: i met eef barzelay last night. readers of my previous entry would understand how huge a deal that is to me. there was just something so surreal about him sitting outside mandel hall, almost hidden by the huge double doors. he was in his trademark white suit, looking a little older than i imagined, but in a way just like i expected. i shook his hand, spoke for a brief moment about his new record, bought an autographed copy of the 'rocket science' soundtrack, and that was that. and what i might now consider a pretty significant moment of my life, as usual, passed with a minimum of fuss.

the night didn't start out that well. we waited for more than an hour out in the cold. the security setup that MAB had was totally inadequate. having 2 security staff (who were on pretty high alert apparently) to screen a line of 700 people just screams bad planning. the worst part, by the time i got in, eef had already begun his set, and i missed at least 1 song. and it became instantly clear why we don't get bigger acts. logistically, it was quite a nightmare.

but eef's set was quite delightful. i think he won a bunch of fans among the people who were actually paying attention. i'm so happy he played 'something beautiful', which might be my favorite song from clem snide's last album. ending off with 'mike kalinsky' was also quite terrific, cos instead of the headbanging that's on the album, eef decided that mike kalinsky would be singing 'brick' at the rock club instead.

amusing, that was the only time 'brick' would be heard. ben folds decided wisely, as we agreed later on, to not play that song, disappointing a vast majority of the audience. honestly, it must suck for your most famous song to be about your teenage girlfriend's abortion. ben folds was actually pretty disappointing on the whole. his backing band is pretty horrible (oh eef, why must you be collaborating with that lame bassist?) and i think he paced his set all wrong. it only got better when he was playing alone, but that was pretty brief. i do give him credit for playing pretty much without any breaks for the better part of 2 hours, but in the end, the sad conclusion is that he is much better on the albums than live.

oh well that took way longer to write than i expected.