Cake

Posted on 2005/02/05 24:59:23 (February 2005) by john.

A review of their gig at the Astoria in London on February 4th 2005.

I've been a huge fan of CAKE since their second album - Fashion Nugget - was released in 1996. Amazingly it has taken me all this time to getting round to actually see them play live. They were supposed to be at no less than two Reading Festivals - one of my chief reasons for going (somewhere between 1997 and 2000), but on both occasions cancelled at the last minute. For a long time they never really toured outside of America, and at one moment of extravagance I was seriously considering flying to California for the weekend to see them play. In the end my bank balance and general dislike of flying won over that argument.

So imagine my horror when I discovered CAKE were touring Europe towards the end of 2004, only then to discover it was too late for me to get a ticket for any of their UK gigs. I went up to about 85 pounds for a pair of tickets on eBay, but then had to throw in the towel. As much as I love Cake, paying something like three times the original ticket price just seemed crazy.

So, following this sorry incident, imagine my delight on discovering they'd decided to do a whole new batch of tour dates early on in 2005. Naturally I went and bought a couple of tickets straight away, and this time paid the going rate.

The big night arrived, and I was full of anticipation. The support - El Presidente - did a very respectable set. I have a feeling I have seen them before, at least in passing - I think they may have played Reading Festival one year.

Having felt pretty solitary in my liking of CAKE - they're generally not that well known in the UK - it was weird to be in a room surrounded by people who presumably must really like them as well. This made for a really great atmosphere. Given that they're not particularly famous, they're not the sort of band people would go along to just to say they've seen them - so I'm pretty sure everyone in that concert hall was a pretty much died-in-the-wool fan.

They arrived on stage about 8:45 I think, and opened with Frank Sinatra from Fashion Nugget. It may have all just been an act, but I had a slight feeling that John McCrea was not in the best of moods. In Frank Sinatra, at a few points Vincent Fiore does a little trumpet riff, which also occurs at the end of the song, but also during the middle when the song picks up again afterwards.... So the crowd, being a bit over enthusiastic to show their appreciation, kept clapping whenever Vincent starting playing the trumpet, which rather drowned out the sound of the it. It could have been my imagination, but this seemed to annoy John McCrea somewhat, and at the end of the very first song of their set, he hung up his guitar and walked off stage. There was an awkward moment or two when everybody, including the band, didn't seem to be sure what was going on. Thankfully, John did come back on stage, so maybe the whole thing was a joke, or he had to go backstage to have a chat with the sound engineers or something... who knows.

Anyway, we were off. I've tried to remember the play list for the evening - this is not in the order they played, instead categorised by album, but I'm pretty sure it is at least complete:

From their first album - Motorcade of Generosity, I think the only song the played was Comanche.

I was surprised to hear there were quite a lot of songs from their second album - Fashion Nugget. In fact they played pretty much half of it - seven of the fourteen. As already mentioned, they started off with Frank Sinatra, and later we also heard Daria, Stickshifts and Safetybelts (which was surprisingly very popular with the crowd), Italian Leather Sofa and Nugget. Nugget, which may have been the second song in their set, involved a lot of crowd participation - John got us to sing "Shut the Fuck" (but very specifically not the "Up"), which then prompted another threat to walk off stage as some people were pretty insistent on singing that "Up". Pretty sure the threat was a joke that time round. They also played The Distance which I think was their last song before the encore, and finally I Will Survive was the second song of the encore, and the last song of the night.

They played a few gems off album number three - Prolonging the Magic, including two of my absolute favourites - Guitar and Sheep go to Heaven. In fact, I think that was actually it from that album.

From Comfort Eagle again there were just the two - Comfort Eagle and Love You Madly.

From the fifth and most recent album, Pressure Chief there were again two songs - Wheels and No Phone. No Phone was I think the first song of the encore, and again one John decided to get a lot of the crowd singing along with, following a little oral presentation about how many of us were descended from vikings and ought to be good singers. Thanks John!

They also played "Excuse me (I think I've got a heartache)" - a cover of a piece of country music. John very helpfully suggested before playing it that anyone who didn't like country music could use this opportunity to visit the toilet. Actually I thought this was very good - I never thought I would hear myself saying I like country and western, but Cake's particular spin on it makes it vastly more agreeable to my uneducated non-American palate.

Obviously there were a few songs I would have liked to have heard and didn't - that is always going to be the way. Still overall, they did manage to play some of my absolute favourites - I was particularly pleased with Sheep go to Heaven and Wheels.

As a pointless aside, I'd listened to the previews of Pressure Chief for the first time just before I took my driving test back in October last year. While I was actually taking my test I had Wheels, which is tremendously catchy, going round and round in my head, over and over again. I'm sure in some weird way this actually helped me to pass. Having been lazy about filling in my application form for my actual license, it ended up just so happening that the day my driving license actually arrived was actually the same day I went to see CAKE, including hearing them play Wheels. This all seemed pleasntly fitting and appropriate.

Anyway, the gig overall was of course fantastic. In my eyes they really could do no wrong - I like just about every song on every one of their albums. By the laws of probability, if they were going to play 15 or so songs it would be nigh-on impossible for them to not have got some of my favourites in there.

I have to admit I was generally a bit concerned after the first song when John McCrea walked off stage that he wasn't actually going to come back, and that was going to be it... I think I read somewhere that he is well known for having a bit of a temper - like many musical geniuses (!). So it could just be that he is playing up to his reputation or something. Whether he was genuinely pissed off or not, I'm not so sure, and this seemed to continue into the second and third songs, but towards the middle of the set he seemed actually quite happy, and by the end he was even complimenting the crowd, and commending us on our viking heritage (?!?).

So all in all, a great night, and I am already itching to go and see them play again.

Not heard Cake myself, but nothing would surprise me about an the audience... When I went to see Alice Cooper, years ago, I spoke to the two girls next to us: "Are you big fans of Alice?" I asked. "I've never heard of her before," was one of the replies... Perhaps they got free tickets or something.

I always reckon if a band sounds as good live as they do on record/CD they they are the real McCoy.

Posted by Nigel at 2005/02/05 21:14:23.

Great to hear that you enjoyed the gig, mate. Sounds like it was a good one. I love Frank Sinatra and would love to have seen that live. Ne'ermind, perhaps next time?

Posted by Rob Lang at 2005/02/07 10:03:30.

Good Write up John

Been to see them 3 times now in the U.K and think that Cake are without doubt oneo f the best bands around... I was at the Feb gig and must say they were on better form than the November date at Shepherds Bush.

John Mcrea does seem to be a bit moody but dam...he is so sexy with it.... (there goes my 32 year old hormones again!)

Posted by Debbie Burdett at 2005/02/09 24:57:14.

Thanks for the feedback Debbie. I have to admit I am secretly pleased to hear this gig was better than the one in Novemeber - as mentioned above I was really desperate to get tickets for the Shepherd's Bush gig and couldn't manage it in the end.

It would be interesting to get a second opinion on all that walking-off-stage business from someone else who was there. Did you think he was genuinely threatening to cut the gig short after the first song? Or was I just reading too much into it?

Posted by John at 2005/02/09 14:21:27.

mmm... cake

Posted by Homer at 2005/02/15 15:44:14.

I totall agree with your analysis of Excuse me (I think I have a heartache) by Buck Owens. I have been looking online for some time now to see if anyone has it recorded. I saw Cake Park City, Utah during the Sundance Film Festival in January this year. What I wouldnt give to hear that song again. Like most everyone here I love Cake, representing Sac town.

Posted by Mike at 2005/02/19 20:37:28.

Great review, I was there and also enjoyed it. I was fantastic but also strange to see so many cake fans in one place. I spoke to as many people as I could and everyone seemed to be into cake in a big way.
As for John's temper, you are right he did take a while to look as if he was having a good time, but I love their music so much and I felt privileged to finally see them. On a downer there was an extremely annoying girl with a stupid red had standing in front of me and when the crowd swayed anywhere near here she would pinch me repeatedly. A very aggressive very horrilbe person! so there!

Posted by I was there at 2005/02/20 20:34:54.

i was at the gig you reviewed. i've also been a fan for many years and it was great to see them on such good form. i thought Mcrea was very witty rather than being a moody. he's got a dry sense of hummor and made the night. it's rare to have such a genuinely engaging frontman. walking off if everyone carried on singing incorrectly was a touch of brillance. of course he was playing, i think he was pretty much enjoing it otherwise it wouldn't have been such an asounding gig. other coments like refusing requests as cake were not a glorified jukebox, and getting the lights turned down cos they were not doing them properly all seemed to me to be delivered with scarastic hummor which had myself and others laughing quite a lot, as well as being blown away with the thing as whole. more CAKE please! thou on their site it does say they will be touring Europe again soon so fingers crossed.

Posted by lisa at 2005/02/23 16:18:37.

the word is meant to be Astounding in my comment rather than asounding which i think i strangely wrote, keyboard Dylexia got the better of me.

Posted by lisa at 2005/02/23 16:22:41.

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