CONCERT REVIEW

CAKE AND NORTHERN STATE
Riviera Theatre
Chicago, Ill.
October 24, 2004

Entertainment
Art

Story by NED O'REILLY
Photos by LYLE A. WAISMAN

Watching Cake live is like your English teacher and your Music teacher had formed a band with three guys you’ve seen around school. Leader John McCrae, trim-bearded, baseball-capped, dressed like a guy you saw in Borders, exhibits virtually no histrionics, gesturing broadly with one or both arms when someone takes a solo or when he wants the audience to sing along.

Also up front, surrounded by a strikingly compact set of electronic keyboards, is Vincent di Fiore, who plays those keys, and a dozen different percussion instruments, and sings harmony vocals, AND frequently blares out scintillating trumpet parts. The workmanlike rhythm section of Xan McCurdy (guitar), Gabriel Nelson (bass), and Todd Roper (drums) never moves out of position as they lay down their supportive, yet still musically varied grooves, often post-disco dance rock (think Talking Heads) or mariachi – underscored by di Fiore’s trumpet solos.

Not owning any Cake, I took along my niece Nia, who has Cake’s first four records, so she could advise me on song titles and the like. This is great stuff! Where else could you be part of audience singalongs of "Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell" and "Satan is my motor?" Indeed, the very gracious McCrae doesn’t apologize for what he’s singing, rather - he finds a way to put everything in a comforting, healthy context. "It’s not a religious thing," he said of the "Satan is my motor" chant, "it’s just a way of acknowledging that you have a dark side." This is where the English teacher idea comes in (OK – philosophy teacher if you’re in college).

I had a vague idea of Cake as a confrontational band, satirizing and lampooning in giddy delight. Not so in the live context. This band is much more about achieving world harmony through music. You can take your kids to this show – and they’ll learn something – as long as you don’t mind the final singalong of the night, "Shut the fuck up" from "Nugget."

Cake has a reputation for carefully chosen covers, but they didn’t do any of them the night Nia and I saw them. They also didn’t do their biggest hits, "The Distance" or "Short Skirt/Long Jacket." But a loyal audience still knew all the words. Near as I could tell, the band performed just two songs form their recently released "Pressure Chief," including the single "No Phone," an ominous ‘80s influenced needler about freeing oneself from one’s cell phone – and another successful singalong on which McCrae dived the men from the women.

Highlights of the action packed set hour and 15 minute set (due largely to the economical structure of the songs and the lack of between-song babbling) included the stretched out "Italian Leather Sofa" and the other new song, "Wheels," on which McCrae ventures into a higher, more soulful vocal register.

Opening act Northern State may well be indicative of where a good chunk of pop music is headed. Ever wonder what rap would be like without all the violence and foul language? This is a white hip-hop act, whose three lead vocalists bounce around the stage like they’ve had one beer at a frat party. Every song they played had basically the same groove, provided by bass, drums, guitar, and a guy with some kind of mixing board or sound effects station.

The three women rappers smiled constantly, jumped straight up and down or strutted around while spewing out completely undecipherable rhymes at lightning speed and passing around a white towel that seemed to be a member of the band. Cake’s McRae, citing the end of the tour with Northern State, invited them out for the final encore of the night, but I’m guessing these two acts will be heading for very different arenas down the road.