The Clams as Black Sabbath
"Hey, guys. Look at Ozzy and those ants!"
More Covering Their Bases
Cover bands. Say what you will about them, but unlike their more successful and famous counterparts, they’ll always play the hits and won’t be snobby assholes about it. In Covering Their Bases, The A.V. Club asks a cover band to weigh in on a contentious issue regarding the reason for their existence. In this special edition, The A.V. Club caught up with a few of the bands participating in one of the city’s greatest fright night traditions: the Halloween homage. Join these unholy undead, if ye dare, as they rock out as some of music’s greatest—and weirdest—acts all over town this weekend.
Today, delve deeply into the psych-garage stylings of The Clams as they take on Black Sabbath on Friday at Cole’s.
AVC: This is the second year you guys have done Sabbath. How did you get into playing them?
Brett Daniels, guitar: Last year we played a party in the West Loop, and we picked Sabbath because it just seems to fit Halloween. It’s got that doom-y feel and dark imagery, so it works. We happened to play Cole’s the next night last year, and we threw a couple of Sabbath songs into our regular set. Cole, the owner, called us about a month ago, this year, and asked us if we would come down and do Sabbath again. And we said, “Sure.”
AVC: But you like playing Ozzy and company, right? It’s definitely different from your normal psychedelic garage style.
BD: We love it. It’s fun for us, and different than our normal style for sure. It’s fun to do something so different.
AVC: What do you have planned for the night? What does the set look like?
BD: We’re still working on it, but we’re doing 45 minutes, so that should be eight or nine songs.
AVC: Are you dressing up? Who’s Geezer Butler?
BD: We don’t really fit the physique of the classic Sabbath guys. Like, we’re not wearing bell-bottoms and crosses. I think we’re just going to wear Grim Reaper robes and have a fog machine.
