When I saw that Cake was on tour again, I was disappointed to discover that they did not have a single date in DC. Then in thinking about a plausible trip, I began considering a trip that was based around a concert in either Boston or NYC. Given strong arguments for the latter, I ended up taking an extra day off work and came to New York Thursday night for a show at Rumsey Playfield.
I have some experience with the venue, having seen Passion Pit, and Phoenix there last year. It's an open air venue in Central Park right by 69th St. The acoustics are decent and there's ample space to move around. Drinks will run you from $6-$8 depending on the beer you choose (first time I've ever seen cans of Blue Moon or Corona).
First off, I should note that while it was not a torrential downpour, it was raining for nearly the entire show. Much like the 9:30 Club Double Set "Evening with Cake", Thursday night's show was a double set. Lead singer, John McCrea came on stage with white conductor's gloves. And the show began almost immediately with Comfort Eagle. McCrea began immediately with the crowd participation leading claps and throwing his gloves into the audience. McCrea's dry, sarcastic wit was in tip top form all night, pointing out that the rain which had been nearly torrential only an hour before was a mere drizzle asking the audience if they were merely lucky, or perhaps chosen people with their own personal god. He immediately denied it after the customary cheer from those who believed the latter. Cake played a song that has some of my favorite Cake Lyrics in it, Wheels, the third verse about the karaoke bar on the banks of the Bosphorous River. The imagery in that verse is so clear and bizarre. Crowd participation and sardonic criticisms of American culture continued in a new song. The "escapists" were on stage left, singing "I want to fly away" while the "angry people" on stage right sang "I'm so sick of you so sick of me, I don't want to be with you". He mused that escapism and random crazy anger were too of the most prevalent approaches to problems in American culture today.
It was in the fourth song in the set, Guitar, my friend and I noticed some timing problems. These issues seemed to persist through the show, and to be honest, it didn't seem like the band was terribly into the show. I don't want to say that they phoned it in, but it certainly lacked the polish of their show at 9:30. This may have also been a function of time constraints due to being outdoors.
They gave away another tree true to form. The person who won it, answered a question about the percentage of the world that has running, drinkable water.
All in all the show was still pretty good, they played three new songs none of which I know the precise name. They did promise an album due out in January, so I'm already very excited for it because if the three songs played during the show are any indicator, it will be pretty strong. I laughed. I sang. I clapped. I had a fun time; just not as much as 9:30.
B
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