26 -- Cake -- Thursday, October 2 -- Pier Six -- Baltimore, MD

They gave away a tree. They built it up throughout the show, asking pseudo serious questions between songs, culminating in a final Guess the Species round before the encore. And then, after the encore, they yanked the ten-foot sapling out of the soil it had been sitting in on stage and passed it off to the lucky winner. Who does that?!














Cake, clearly. It did not occur to me at the time, but the tree stunt actually fit the band perfectly. It was arresting, daring, and hilariously offbeat. You did not fully know what was going in, but you picked up on the sarcasm, the fake eco enthusiasm. They let you in on the elaborate, sly joke.

All of those characteristics also fit Cake’s music. I was happy to find that they played virtually all of my favorite Cake songs. It was also gratifying to hear that frontman John McCrea's voice lost nothing on stage – it was every bit as deep and snarky as on the albums.





Grade: A-