CAKE

ivy03 and I went to see CAKE last night. It was entertaining and I had a good time, but I really don't think I'd bother again. They've always had a certain laid-back vibe--it turns out they don't actually add much energy for a live concert. Also? Their front man turns out to be a drunken asshole.

He's the kind of guy with extremely strong but not particularly well thought out opinions, who lectures the audience on how America is full of rage these days in the very vaguest of terms. Who repeatedly expresses his gratitude to the audience for still liking the band in that incredibly drunk guy way of slurring "I love you, man! You're awesome!" repeatedly. Who decries his band's t-shirts as "capitalist merchandise" before throwing one to the crowd, in a way that makes you feel guilty about selling out and buying stuff even as he himself benefits from it. He's a proto-hipster who skirts the edge of irony but never quite makes it there--he doesn't seem to have the guts to go on full-ironic funny mode, or perhaps he's so hipsterishly subtle about it I missed it. But as his diction degraded over the course of the show, so did my respect for him.

(Also, if you're going to hide your incipent baldness under a cap, remember not to take it off your head at the end.)

Plus, they had a plum sapling on stage for the entire concert, and gave it away to a random fan for no discernable reason. Trying a little hard for a schtick, fellows.

That said, they do know how to structure a show to keep fans happy. They played a reasonable amount of their older stuff, including the opening couple songs and their encore. And the stuff off their newer albums, which I was unfamiliar with, was quite good and I liked it. (Although I had trouble understanding some of the words because of the aforementioned slurring.)

So buy their new album. Don't bother going to the concert. Unless you really want a tree.