CAKE – Sound Academy, Toronto 5/21/2011
An evening with CAKE at the Sound Academy.
CAKE kept it simple Saturday night at Toronto’s Sound Academy. There was no opening band, instead two distinct sets marked by a brief 15-minute intermission. A disco ball provided the lighting for the night, and each band member seemed to concentrate solely on their instrument, from Xan McCurdy and his guitar to Gabe Nelson on bass.
We are spending an evening together,” vocalist John McCrea said, and that’s really what it felt like.
The simplicity of the sets made the music all that much important and CAKE fans are really committed to the music. From the very first song, their cover of Willie Nelson’s Sad Songs and Waltzes”, the show became a sing along.
I’ve seen many bands since my interest in live music began from a young age, but never have I seen a crowd like the one CAKE managed to draw out that night.
Splitting the audience in two to sing separate parts of the final chorus of Sick of You,” a single off their newest album, Showroom of Compassion, I swear not one person was silent. All the way to the back of the venue, heads bobbed and people bounced. When McCrea got the clapping started they never stopped.
Even CAKE’s newer songs received the same enthusiastic reaction from the crowd as hits like ”Short Skirt/Long Jacket” and Rock ‘n Roll Lifestyle.”
A maple tree was given out to one lucky crowd member who was brought onstage to promise to post a photo on the band’s website of himself standing next to the newly planted tree. The giving away of a tree at their shows have been a tradition for CAKE for the last few years.
Cheering erupted after the band left the stage for the second time and after chanting, whistling and clapping, CAKE came out to wrap up the encore with two more hits, Never There” and The Distance.”
All the different sounds that CAKE manages to incorporate into their 20 years of making music came out Saturday night, and the band executed them in the perfect way, by concentrating solely on the music and letting it make the show.
Maybe that’s why they’ve managed to maintain and even grow their popularity over the last years, by staying true to their unique sound with simple, straight-ahead, and straight-up solid, live shows.
Oh, and of course the vibraslap.
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