CAKE played two sets and gave away a tree!

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There was no opener, 8 songs, an intermission that saw a tree get gifted to a fan, 8 more songs and trio of tunes in an encore.  That’s the way that CAKE did it up in Nashville on a Saturday night in April.  The day before Easter we were treated to a spectacular show by the Cali band.  CAKE is from Sacramento, California, and consists of singer John McCrea, trumpeter Vince DiFiore, guitarist Xan McCurdy, bassist Daniel McCallum, and drummer Todd Roper and they were on point for this gig. 

As the sun set behind the droves of 90’s Alt-Rock fans, the Ascend Amphitheater launched the first series of concerts with perfect fashion.  The outdoor venue “seats” about 7,000 people across 3 platforms of viewing areas. There is a standing only pit right in front of the stage, followed by assigned seating and then a lawn space that can accommodate around 4,500.  It all flows in an upward fashion away from the stage – so there is not a bad seat in the whole venue.  The space is backed by the Cumberland River and as the sun finished setting, the concert began promptly at 8pm and went for a well formulated 2 hours and 13 minutes. 

The show included all the hits and fan favorite songs, as well as a few covers and a new piece from their upcoming 2025 album (no release date as of yet). That was certainly my big take as they approached the start to a new tune called ‘Billionaire in Space’ and announce the upcoming drop.  CAKE hasn’t had a studio album release since 2011 with Showroom of Compassion – so to hear of a brand-new record coming out I was beyond excited.  This unknown titled piece will be their 7^th studio album release. 

The show was no frills, just great music.  CAKE doesn’t need pyrotechnics, lasers or kitschy gimmicks the music is delicious on its own. McCrea explained what was coming right away: 

“It’s an evening with just one band tonight and two sets of music just like in the old days,” he said. “It will be super civilized. We don’t have to consume all the music at once, so just relax and we’ll have an intermission wherein we can sort of collect our thoughts, think about what we’ve been through together, and then return with renewed vigor and intention.” 

The band started with a cover of ‘Sad Songs and Waltzes’ by Willie Nelson and then Rolled into ‘Sheep Go to Heaven’ with the crowd shouting in tandem with the music.  McCrea whipped his vibraslap out, creating that iconic CAKE rattled I was transported back to a simpler time. The sound of CAKE is like none other. It is a forward assault of heavy bass jaunts and snappy verses that make you happy to be alive. Like my friend Andrea quipped, “They are a more approachable version of Primus”. I tend to agree – maybe sprinkle in some Ween and your almost there.

As they left for a brief intermission they returned to the stay to present a fan with a rosebud tree. McCrea encourage the audience up close to be quiet and raise their hands and guess what kind of tree they were presenting.  “If you shout out an answer, I’ll just dismiss that whole section and everyone will hate you”, he said. “LeAnne (?) guessed correctly with “Redbud!” and agreed to properly plant the tree for the band. 

“If you’re not very familiar with Cake,” McCrea said. “We’ve been giving trees away for more than a few years and we have on our website a map of the entire Earth and on this map are tree icons over different cities. If you click on one of those icons, you will see Hans in Germany or Jeff in Fresno with his olive tree. Maybe tonight you’ll see someone in Nashville with their tree, and they’ll send update photographs of themselves aging out next to an increasingly vital and powerful tree.” 

GALLERY:

After the greenery gifting the band shot into ‘Love You Madly’.  A few songs later we were treated to that fresh hit ‘Billionaire in Space’, which seemed to be directed towards somebody specific, but the band leader has said otherwise.  

“’Billionaire in Space’ isn’t a song about a particular billionaire,” McCrea said in a statement. “It’s an observation, really of all billionaires, and the economic imbalance that we’ve been lulled into accepting as the norm. It is a song about being left behind.” 

“I wrote the song in 2020, during the apocalyptic West Coast wildfires, when everything on the ground was literally going up in smoke,” he added. “I pictured the billionaires in the sky, casually orbiting, calmly looking down out of their circular windows. I couldn’t shake the image. But the song is not an indictment against these billionaires so much as it is a crude meditation on the economic imbalance that we’ve sleepwalked ourselves into.” 

The show was well laid out and they didn’t “forget” any tracks, except maybe my friend Andrea’s pre-show request for ‘Jolene’ and the Gloria Gaynor cover of ‘I Will Survive’, by me, but you can’t play everything. McCrea explained to the audience that CAKE doesn’t use a setlist, but rather they play what they are feeling. 

“Sometimes we forget to play an important song. We angered some Canadians by not playing the song on the radio there, but mostly it works out well and we don’t have to feel like we’re dead inside,” he smirked in saying. 

The concert ended with grace with a three song encore of ‘Short Skirt/ Long Jacket’, a cover of ‘Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps’ and closing with the mega hit ‘The Distance’. We were all on our feet by the end of it all.  We had our CAKE and… I won’t do it. 

VIDEOS:

The setlist 

“Sad Songs and Waltzes” 

“Sheep Go To Heaven” 

“Wheels” 

“Stickshifts and Safety Belts” 

“Frank Sinatra” 

“Long Time” 

“She Thinks I Still Care” 

“Sick of You” 

“Love You Madly” 

“Daria” 

“Billionaire in Space” 

“Guitar” 

“Meanwhile, Rick James” 

“Ruby Sees All” 

“Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle” 

“Never There” 

“Short Skirt/Long Jacket” 

“Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” 

“The Distance”