They say these pages are here for us to write about anything we want, so I'll warn you up front that I have nothing useful to say today.
There are a few bands that I will make every attempt to see anytime they are in town. Cake is one of those bands. It's hard to classify what kind of music these guys play. You really just need to give them a listen. Perhaps you've heard one or more of their radio hits. The most likely candidates would be "Rock 'N Roll Lifestyle", "The Distance", "Never There", or "Short Skirt/Long Jacket". Cake has always been a hit in college radio circles, which makes their latest show here that much more interesting.
Cake played at the Coors Event Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder this past Sunday (4/29/07). There were a couple of unusual aspects to this show. We've seen them on a college campus before, but here's what struck me about this show.
First, this event was sponsored by CU students. That, in and of itself isn't so strange. What was strange, however, was that there was no alcohol served at the show. That was a definite first for me. I've seen a lot of concerts over the years, but I don't recall ever being at one where there was no alcohol. I have to wonder if this was common knowledge, because I've also rarely been at non-club type shows with so few people. Alright, well, even if I had known there was not going to be anything to drink there, I still would have gone. Like I said, I would never pass up an opportunity to see Cake.
The second thing that I wasn't prepared for at this show was lead singer John McCrea's apparent disdain for college students. Anybody that knows Cake, or more accurately, John McCrea knows that he's not shy about expressing his opinion. However, telling your loving, paying audience something along the lines of "This next song is from our latest album. Oh, wait... you guys probably don't know what albums are. You just download your music off the internet and fill up your shiny, expensive mp3 players for free". I'm not a college student, and I happen to own every Cake album, but OUCH. That still hurt.
John, quit playing games with my heart, dude.
Maybe I'm still harboring a grudge because I didn't win the autographed vinyl copy of Fashion Nugget from their recent contest. As if that weren't harsh enough, we were also treated to a beating based on the fact that most of the folks in the audience were probably about 10 years old when their first album came out. Probably true, too, albeit not for me. But then again, I certainly had no idea who Cake was in 1994.
Despite all of this, Cake are still my boys. Rock on, dudes. Here's their setlist from Sunday's show. Oh, wait, Cake doesn't play with a setlist. My bad. Here is the list of songs they spontaneously decided to perform on Sunday night:
Frank Sinatra
Rock 'N Roll Lifestyle
War Pigs
Stickshifts and Safetybelts
Comfort Eagle
Wheels
Love You Madly
Comanche
Shadow Stabbing
Italian Leather Sofa
Mexico
Guitar
Haze Of Love
Never There
Encore:
Short Skirt/Long Jacket
Sheep Go To Heaven
The Distance
Oh, and one last thing... Who decided that concerts that last a mere hour and a quarter were acceptable? You may be getting old, but so are we. If we can stand to have our feet stepped on by oblivious college students taking up twice their personal space dancing and have other inconsiderate slobs step right in front of you in an attempt to get six inches closer to the stage, the least you can do is play a decent length show.
I also wonder if their failure to play "Daria" was a deliberate slap in our collective faces. No worries, dudes. I'll just put on my Fashion Nugget CD that I bought.
-D
As is generally the case when you have kids, we left late enough to miss the first opening band and arrived just in time to catch the second. This, as it turns out, was unfortunate. I just don't get the allure of listening to guitars driven to near complete distortion and a lead "singer" who seems to be more at ease screaming all the lyrics. Maybe I'm old. Well, I am old, but I'm still here to see MCR.
