On the Road Again
Live Reviews:

Cake
November 7, 1998
The Opera House, Toronto, ON

The capacity crowd at the Opera house in Toronto were given the rare treat of having their Cake and eating it too (sorry, too easy?). The band tested the mettle of their fans early by waiting a good hour after the opening band left the stage. The empty stage was met with a chorus of boo's loud enough to drown out the recorded pre-show music. When John McCrea and the lads did take the stage, he greeted everyone with a pompous "We are Cake and we're here to serve you." No matter though; the jam packed room cheered like it was their best friend on stage. Opening the night with "This Love" led to the whole room singing along from the get-go.

Watching people dance, bob and weave to the sounds of Cake reminded me of a Phish show: no attitude, just the music. Portions were lost on me a little bit with some of the evening sounding painfully rehearsed, but from everyone I could see, they all seemed to really enjoy it. "Italian Leather Sofa," "Stick Shift" and "Satan is My Motor" were specific standouts.

At one point McCrea used his status (of having a mic and being on stage) to take the piss out of a poor soul who voiced his distaste of heavy metal godfathers AC/DC. McCrea asked this poor kid to leave, saying: "Hey, AC/DC hater why don't you go, since your on the cutting edge of Rock N' Roll? Maybe you should just go."

I feel as though I missed something at this show. Was it because I couldn't see them save for a sporadic ten minutes here or there, maybe? From what I caught,they just seemed to stand around. Having said that, some fans apparently got something out of this show that defies logic. I mean, one couple right beside me were dancing up a storm, staring longingly at each other and dreaming of that post-coital cigarette.