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Fine piece of Cake at Olympic concert By
Jason Robey While thousands of screaming teen-age girls were fighting for a better view of N'Sync at the Olympic Medals Plaza on Saturday, the alt-rock band Cake rocked the house at the Mountain Dew Ice Village. The band treated the sold-out crowd to 17 crowd-pleasing songs, from four albums. The show got off to a strange start, when the band opened with its only recorded instrumental track, Arco Arena, followed, just like on the album, by the title track Comfort Eagle, which is probably the hardest rocker recorded by the band. The band completely turned their pace around by moving right into the slowest song it has ever done, a nicely-played-but-poorly-placed cover of Willie Nelson's country-ballad, Sad Songs and Waltzes. Once the show got moving again, it didn't slow down for the rest of the night. The band played several of its most popular songs, such as Sheep Go to Heaven, the angry Nugget, and the latest single, Love You Madly. The loudest audience response came when Cake played its biggest hit single, The Distance. Singer John McCrea's off-the-wall, insanely poetic lyrics were the perfect complement to the indescribable music put forth by guitarist Xan McCurdy, Keyboardist Vince Di Fiore, and drummer Todd Roper. At many points in the show, the only things stranger than the words McCrea sang were the ones he spoke to the audience between songs. Dressed in clothes that make him look more like he should be changing our oil than being on stage at a rock concert, he questioned the audience several times as to who among them has won a gold medal, and challenged them to a game of foosball. He also shared his plan to take over West Jordan, during a sing-along in the rarely played Mr. Mastodon Farm, from the band's first album, Motorcade of Generosity. The set closed with the first single from Comfort Eagle, Short Skirt/Long Jacket, and after about five minutes of screaming from the audience, returned for a three-song encore, which ended with their bass-heavy, jazz/folk-rock fusion rendition of Gloria Gaynor's disco classic I Will Survive. The show took place at a temporary concert venue, in place for the Olympics, called the Mountain Dew Ice Village, an all-ages club with a stage, several video game stations, concession stands, and a bar. According to an Ice Village Public Relations representative, club promoters hope to turn it into a permanent club soon. Over the past two weeks, the venue has also hosted bands such as Cheap Trick, George Clinton, and Lit, though Saturday's Cake show was the largest crowd so far.
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