Cake Wasn’t Left Out in the Rain and Houston Fans Rejoiced

The lawn at White Oak Music Hall is no MacArthur Park, so none of us there for last night’s show were very concerned about our Cake being left out in the rain. Sure, there was a half-hour light shower just before the concert and all evening clouds hung over the festivities like the reverberations from the vibraslap favored by the veteran alt-rock band, but we didn’t mind.

Once the show started and Cake launched into hit after hit from a career that dates back to the early 1990s, the rain stopped and the fun started. It was not “coming down,” a la Cake’s 1996 tune of roughly the same name, unless “it” was a deluge of good vibes from hearing vocalist John McCrea and band back in Houston.  They delivered two solid sets, split by an intermission that turned the band’s singer into the host of an odd live game show (more on that later).

Because the band has plenty of material to draw from, from 30 years of hit albums like Fashion Nugget, Comfort Eagle and the beloved B-Sides and Rarities, there was no show opener. It was all Cake all night, from “Frank Sinatra” to the final encore song (“The Distance”) and lots of quirky stage patter in between, a sweet tooth’s delight.

At the show’s start, just after “Frank Sinatra” opened for Cake (such fun to write that), McCrea promised “two sets of music, assuming that there’s not a hurricane or something weird. And in the middle, we’ll have a very civilized thing called an intermission. We don’t have to consume all the music product at once. We can pause, reflect on what we’ve been through so far together, and then return with renewed vigor and intention.”

McCrea was speaking only of the songs in last night’s set list at that moment, but the notion of reflecting on what we’ve been through together and having music renew our vigor wasn’t lost on those in the crowd, fans who’ve spent a good chunk of their respective lifetimes following the band. These were listeners who latched onto the Cake mix of wry original songs and perfectly selected, smartly arranged covers as college kids way back during the Clinton administration. The 16 songs in the set list weren’t just greatest hits, they were songs that punctuated moments big and small over four decades of life. So, when McCrea encouraged the audience to sing along to the ones they knew just ahead of the second song, “Sheep Go To Heaven,” they sang enthusiastically to every song for the rest of the night.

This reviewer attended the show with a Cake expert (more on her in a moment) who told me McCrea is someone keenly fixated on the flow of Cake’s music on record and in the live show. Tracks arranged with particular specificity for maximum umph. Knowing that, fans in Houston, Texas maybe weren’t surprised to hear “Stickshifts and Safetybelts,” in the first set, with a lead-in about burning fossil fuels for romantic gain, or “Sad Songs and Waltzes,” a Willie Nelson cover. Both are country music-tinged, essential Cake tracks and they fit the bill expertly in Houston, one placed in the first set of the show (six songs) and the other in the second set’s run of 10 tracks.

That imbalance didn’t bother folks much. They sang heartily to McCrea’s monotone tones on songs like “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps,” which, he boldly proclaimed, was written before anyone in the crowd was even alive (1947) and Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” (shout out to the 10 year-old near us who gleefully told his dad “I know this one!” then joined in with the crowd for “Generals gathered in their massessssssss”). The one time the flow of the show did take a bit of a hit was during the intermission when McCrea tried to give away a tree to one lucky fan.

Returning to the stage from a brief respite after the first set, McCrea — a well-known activist who counts reforestation among his causes — stood next to a tree of unknown origin and promised to gift it to the audience member who could identify it. Because we live in a tangle of concrete and steel rather than, you know, trees, we had a very hard time identifying the genus. Everything from “maple” to “cherry blossom” to “fake” was guessed incorrectly, much to McCrea’s dismay.

While McCrea was doing a sort of Bob Barker meets Johnny Appleseed thing, fans waiting on music grew restless. When one person guessed “crabapple,” an annoyed fan shouted “You’re a crabapple!” We giggled while also feeling sorry for ourselves and our neighbors who really don’t know much about natural life, it seems. Thankfully, a fan named Ella pegged the mystery guest as a Mexican plum and the night of music continued.

The first set ended with a cathartic sing-along to “Sick Of You,” described to the crowd by McCrea as “a very negative song. If you just lost a job today or you’re going through a terrible break-up experience or a prolonged divorce proceeding, or maybe you’re just on a psychedelic drug that’s making you way too open to everything.” Whatever our angst, Cake tried to diminish it at least momentarily (as they’ve done with 30 years of music) by having the crowd sing together, McCrea acting as conductor while our voices echoed up to those storm clouds as if challenging them, daring them, to rain on our parade. We weren’t concerned about our sweet, green icing flowing down, we were being uplifted by the power of our favorite music.

Personal Bias: One of the best ways to discover music is through people who become important in our lives. I never knew I was much of a Cake fan until my daughter-in-law Veronica started talking up the band and her longstanding love for them. She’s literally a punk rocker, a professional musician who affords her rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle by managing her band, touring like crazy and shredding the most punk rock instrument of all:  the mandolin. She’s also funny, thorough and sharp as a tack. Once I got to know and love her, it became super obvious why she’s a Cake fan – their songs are funny, thorough and sharp as a tack.

She loves Cake so much that she and my son (who aptly describes Cake as “fisherman’s funk,” because the music’s sneakily funky, in the least flashy, most humble of ways) tracked a version of “Frank Sinatra” once for a split and you can find it out there on Bandcamp if you wanna go music sleuthing. I’ve been to so many shows with people I love over 43 (!) years of concert-going, including Mrs. Sendejas and our kids. But this is truly Veronica’s band, the one she said her sister turned her onto over repeat plays of “Sheep Go To Heaven” and one that was added to our family playlists when she was added to our family. It made this old father-in-law extraordinarily happy to be there with her to see them for her first time. And, the show was an anniversary present to her and my son which clearly makes Mrs. S and I the coolest in-laws ever.

The Crowd: Gray hairs getting dropped off by Uber drivers near the entrance gates and people who need to study Dirr’s Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs.

Random Notebook Dump: Sorry about these photos of your favorite band, Cake fans. Ya boy is not a photographer (mumbles something about painting pictures with words) and got to the venue too late to get close-up shots of the band. But, he did have fun with his wife, kids and a bunch of friends who joined us for the show. Special nod to all of them, seeing shows as a group is always a blast.

Cake Set List

Frank Sinatra
Sheep Go To Heaven
Long Time
Stickshifts and Safetybelts
Walk On By
Sick Of You
Love You Madly
Sad Songs and Waltzes (Willie Nelson cover)
Opera Singer
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps (Osvaldo Farrés cover)
Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle
Italian Leather Sofa
Never There
Short Skirt/Long Jacket
War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover)
The Distance