On Thursday, September 25, "Cake" came back to Toronto to perform at The Sound Academy with special guest "Paper Lions."
The Sound Academy has better acoustics than I expected. I hadn't been to a concert there before but went to the "Docks" plenty of times, so I kept a lo-fi approach in mind... but the sound was great. This was my fourth time seeing Cake live and they never disappoint. Previously saw them at Massey Hall in 2004, Danforth Music Hall in 1999 and at The Opera House in 1998.
How often will you see a rock band with a trumpet player? How often is singing along not only encouraged but actually happening with just about everyone? The average Cake fan is very familiar with the full catalogue and their songs often lend themselves to easily identifiable audience participation moments. Everything from yelling out "Dude!" in perfect timing during the frenetic "Comfort Eagle" to harmonizing for songs like show-opener "Frank Sinatra." It's amazing how long the entire crowd keeps up with the outro chorus on "Sheep Go To Heaven" but it's a joy to behold and I don't look forward to the day that the crowd isn't into it. When I saw them at The Danforth Music Hall, it was damn near a spiritual moment when the crowd took on the harmonizing of "Hem Of Your Garment" with almost no prompting whatsoever. The room itself felt alive.
I've done enough song name dropping that by now you might be asking, yeah, but who is "Cake"? Whether you realize it or not, you've probably heard their music even if you never listen to CFNY/The Edge (although that helps). Their music has been borrowed many times for many films of many disciplines and the distinct, almost speaking-style signing of John McCrea truly distinguishes them. The trumpet does too.
The stage was set quite simply with a large mountain canvas backdrop, a modest array of alternating colour lights and a disco ball. When you have a disco ball, you don't really need anything else, but they gave it a little something extra to warm up the place: they brought a small tree out on stage where it sat for the entire show.
Midway though the show, McCrea said with some degree of sincerity that "without a doubt, the saddest thing about the 20th Century ending was the disappearance of the 3-4 time signature," just before playing "Mexico" followed by one of their only instrumental numbers "Arco Arena" as if to say, and here's another song not meant for radio, but just for you... or them... or whatever.
Only when the set was over and they returned for an encore did lead singer John McCrea explain that the tree was to be given away to the person who would quietly, and calmly raise their hand and answer the question when addressed directly. The rules were simple, yet not simple enough. McCrea began to get frustrated by the people yelling out their guesses, and the scene bordered on ugly after five minutes or so after he playfully berated the crowd for yelling out their answers saying that he didn't care, we'd just stay here until someone gets the answer right, and they won't play more music until the tree was given away. 20 painfully wrong answers later, McCrea decided some hints were in order and it'd been narrowed down to a type of apple tree. Finally, someone named "Carl" guessed it was a Golden Delicious Apple tree and all was right in the world again.
The encore began with "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" which gave way to an orchestrated fight of "good versus evil" as the audience of the left side battled against the right in the power of the "Na Na Na Na Na Nas" all the while McCrea fueled the urge to win into each side. Stage left side dominated. It wasn't even close. Standing in the middle, not unlike Switzerland, I had no bias or allegiance, that's just how it was.
Then they played a song they said they'd never played live before, a new track off their forthcoming, self produced album which I can only guess will be called "I Wanna Hold You." Earlier in the night they explained that "Pressure Chief" was their last studio album, and from now on they were going it alone... so "prepare for us to disappear into obscurity entirely." The last song of the evening was "The Distance," one of their breakthrough, rousing hits off "Fashion Nugget."
Another terrific, masterful performance that could easily have included a dozen different swapped songs, as their catalogue is rife with crowd-pleasing numbers that the devout will always come on out for, if only to join the choir. Next time, I'll have my newly acquired t-shirt to wear. Gotta support the team.
Full set list:
Frank Sinatra, Ruby Sees All, Don't Take Your Love To Town, War Pigs, Rock 'N' Roll Lifestyle, Love You Madly, Comfort Eagle, Stickshifts & Safetybelts, Wheels, Mexico, Arco Arena, Sheep Go To Heaven, Comanche, Never There - Encore: Short Skirt/Long Jacket, "I Wanna Hold You" ?, and The Distance.
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