By Kevin Facklerstaff Writer

“Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell.” Just imagine this CAKE tune being chanted over an audience of thousands. This was what I witnessed at CAKE’s performance last Tuesday night at their show here in Louisville.

In concert, the fun, twisted tunes of trumpet playing and guitars were very entertaining, and at some point even funky. Set apart from the voice of lead singer, John McCrea, which I think, makes up CAKE’s unique sound. The show jammed, in a geek-rock kind of way.

I must say I was a bit skeptical about the setting at first. Playing in the Palace Theater, I thought it would be slightly more elegant than what the band is used to playing. If you’ve been in there before, you know what I am talking about. But playing against a sketch mountaintop as the backdrop, the setting did not seem to have any effects on the show.

The Sacramento quintet of CAKE has been playing since 1991. Since then they have released four albums. They are Motorcade of Generosity (1994), Fashion Nugget (1996), Prolonging the Magic (1998), and Comfort Eagle (2001). The band consists of Vince di Fiores on trumpets, Gabe Nelson playing bass guitar, Xan McCurdy playing electric guitar, John McCrea as lead vocal and acoustic guitar, and Todd Roper playing drums.

Louisville was CAKE’s sixth stop on their 13-show tour. The tour is to promote their recent released album, Comfort Eagle. All but one show on the tour is in our part of the U.S. They’ll sum up the tour in the west at Salt Lake City, home of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

CAKE gave the fans what they wanted to hear mostly. Most of their released songs were played, such as “The Distance” and “Never There.” Although, I was a little disappointed, that the show lacked some songs I was expecting to hear. How could they NOT have played “Daria!?” Claiming to be unprofessional, the band hasn’t had a set list of songs to play in over five years. “We play what we feel like playing.” I guess they just didn’t feel like it.

Despite that, the show was really fun. I was impressed, as was the audience. So much that CAKE was cheered back on stage for a three-song encore. CAKE ended the show with their remake of Gloria Gaynor’s disco anthem, “I Will Survive.” Nice closing due to recent events.

CARDINAL GRADE:

A-