“Everybody likes cake,” comedian Jim Gaffigan once said in his stand-up special, Beyond the Pale. He is 100 percent correct. Of course, he’s referring the wonderful edible goodness primarily associated with birthdays, but replace the band Cake and you’re still pretty accurate. Cake is a pretty kickass band for several reasons. For one, they have a distinguishable sound, although I used to think singer John McCrea kind of sounded like Beck (these thoughts diminished completely after Guero). Second, they’re usually a very party appropriate band. If you put on “The Distance” at a party, chances are people will either get down, get loud, or get out. And if they leave because of that song, they clearly shouldn’t have been at your party in the first place. But most importantly, Cake puts on a kickass live show, which we all know is crucial these days.
I have seen Cake twice in my life. Once was on their Unlimited Sunshine 2007 tour, with Brazilian Girls and King City. The other was when the band headlined a free show in Boston called Earth Fest. Both of these performances were unique experiences with intricate/different set lists. The first included a lot of older jams such as “Comanche”, “Carbon Monoxide”, and “Rock N’ Roll Lifestyle”, all at Boston’s Orpheum. That night also included transporting my friend Aaron across state lines in the trunk of a car, a drunken Harry Potter trivia battle on the Boston subway system, and my friend Max getting punched in the face repeatedly. The second show was a much more friendly experience for families and children, while the band played their better known tunes, including “Comfort Eagle”, “Short Skirt/Long Jacket”, and their cover of “I Will Survive”. Needless to say, Cake know how to mix things up.
The first clip here is from Cake’s 2005 show right in their stomping grounds of northern California. And they’re not playing just anywhere in Nor-Cal. They’re rocking the stage of the Great American Music Hall, one of San Francisco’s notorious venues for their high caliber band selection and obscenely small space. Here, Cake is playing “Carbon Monoxide”, one of the band’s more upbeat songs that make you want to pogo like it’s a 2002 Good Charlotte show. This is one of their common live jams, and usually gets people boogying. For some reason, this live video is edited, but it still showcases how Cake slaps live. To see how they actually use all the instruments on their recordings is great. Horn player Vince DiFiore has no problem keeping up, while guitarist Xan McCurdy consistently crunches away.
The next video comes from the aforementioned Earth Fest of 2008. The venue is Boston’s Hatch Shell, primarily known as the place where Dispatch performed their final show and made that live triple disc (All Points Bulletin) that all my friends seem to like so much. At the start, John McCrea thanks the law enforcement of Boston who are “here to serve you,” and then thanks the “ambulance that seems to be active.” He then rambles on about the lack of songs in the three-four time signature, among other McCrea weirdness. The band then plays “Mexico”, one of their sadder, lonelier numbers. Vince DiFiore hits every note on the trumpet perfectly, as the sun dips down over Boston.
The antics are a big part of Cake’s show, giving them a bit more character in the flesh. There is one thing they do at every show, though, that remains a landmark. Halfway through, the band usually stops and somehow gets a volunteer from the audience. The first time I saw them, they chose the first person that correctly answered which state consumes the most prune juice (Florida). The second time, they chose a girl who was volunteering at the show (which was nice of them). Anyway, they get somebody up on stage and present him or her with a tree. There are conditions though. Cake doesn’t just give you a tree and say, “See you later.” The person must plant the tree and take pictures of themselves standing with the tree, “so we can watch you wither away, and the tree can grow.” Cake must feel really good to know they’re helping spread forests around the nation. This particular tree was given away in Vancouver on May 13th, 2008, and I’m sure somewhere in Canada, it’s growing (if you won this tree, please email us a photo of it at CoS).
Aside from rocking the small venues and local, radio-funded events, Cake can also handle crowds of a larger magnitude. This video comes from the Pinkpop festival in 2005, located in the fantastic Netherlands. Kind of ironic that they would be playing a song called “Rock N’ Roll Lifestyle” in the country that houses Amsterdam, but the song is fitting, and one of Cake’s finest. The percussion is right on point, as always, while McCrea questions “How much did you pay for that rock and roll t-shirt?” Even when the song changes tempo and style, every member has no problem playing their part perfectly. Some of these songs translate well to the live experience, but Cake constantly keeps everything entertaining, especially when in front of enormous crowds.
Our final clip is their usual closer, and their most popular song to date. That track is obviously “The Distance”, the coolest song ever about racecars. Once again, Cake is in their Nor-Cal territory, this time playing at Oakland’s famed Fox Theater. McCrea begins the song by thanking his crew for all their hard work, and then casually begins the lyrics as if he’s delivering a political speech. But once the song truly kicks in, you can tell the crowd loves it. Every instrumental part from the recording is in there, including the use of McCrea’s vibra-slap. When they get to the chorus though, there isn’t one person who isn’t chanting the lyrics. This song usually causes (friendly) mosh pits, intense sing-a-longs, and a lot of energy from both the band and the audience. This is always the pinnacle of the Cake live experience.
When I was in film school, this one nerd in my class made a project where the moral was, “In the end, the music of Cake brings people together.” I guess for the strange breed of people who adore Cake, this is totally true. Cake has been doing their thing successfully now for almost twenty years, and does not seem to be slowing down any time soon. Their new album, Showroom of Compassion, drops sometime in the near future, and was also made entirely on green energy. A live tour will ensue and I’m sure Cake will be making appearances at some of our favorite festivals (Coachella daytime set, please?). Now, though, they have dates booked all over the U.S., including a four-night Valentine’s run at San Francisco’s famous Fillmore. Cake definitely is a very strange band, but hey, they never got weird enough for me.
“Everybody likes cake,” comedian Jim Gaffigan once said in his stand-up special, Beyond the Pale. He is 100 percent correct. Of course, he’s referring the wonderful edible goodness primarily associated with birthdays, but replace the band Cake and you’re still pretty accurate. Cake is a pretty kickass band for several reasons. For one, they have a distinguishable sound, although I used to think singer John McCrea kind of sounded like Beck (these thoughts diminished completely after Guero). Second, they’re usually a very party appropriate band. If you put on “The Distance” at a party, chances are people will either get down, get loud, or get out. And if they leave because of that song, they clearly shouldn’t have been at your party in the first place. But most importantly, Cake puts on a kickass live show, which we all know is crucial these days.
