Hey! Read this!

So since we all need to make five postings a week and no one seems to be keeping up (sans Rachel) I figured I’d post a little something something that we could all discuss. I did this paper in my aesthetics class about a month ago. It’s about a Cake show I went to (the band not the food) and I raised some topics about people’s dispositions toward live musical perfomances. The bulk of it is spent describing the show but only to emphasize on what a spectacular show it was which, in turn, reinforces the the philosophical issue. The philosophical issue comes toward the end, though my professor said it was more of a social scientific issue. Regardless, I’m sure you’re all music lovers and would have at least something to comment on about it. Plus, the final product was somewhat rushed and I’d like to expand on it. Any of your thoughts would be appreciated. Anyway, here’s my paper (sorry if it’s a little long):

As an appreciator of music, I have been going to see live performances for many years now. Be it a grand concert in an enormous arena or a five dollar show in a random kid=s basement, I=ve been to them all. I can find enjoyment in any of those places as long as the music is good (sometimes even when it=s not). I recently attended a Cake show earlier this month at Jersey=s own Starland Ballroom, a venue that=s not so much a ballroom as it is a glorified bar with a stage. Taking all the bad with the good, the show ended up being thoroughly entertaining.

While I=ve known about Cake for some time now, I only recently fell in love with the band. I don=t know what it was. My friends have all been huge fans of them for years now and I=ve been familiar with their music and their distinct sound for most of that time, yet for some reason they never earned more than a passing admiration from me until the last year. For the short time that I=ve been a big fan of their=s, I=ve immersed myself in their entire discography and liked nearly everything I=ve heard by them. I decided I had to see them live as soon as I possibly could and jumped at the chance to see them at Starland.

Cake opened with the song ARuby Don=t Take your Love to Town,@ a cover of a Kenny Rogers song of the same name off of their B-Sides and Rarities album. The name of the album itself should tell you that this was rather unorthodox of them. Most bands don=t open with a cover, let alone a song that=s on a compilation and isn=t a single. Regardless, I wasn=t complaining since it happens to be one of my favorites by them. After I thought about it for a while, it made more and more sense that they open with this particular song. One of the defining qualities of the band is the lead singer John McCrea=s voice. He uses it in a way that=s not quite spoken word, but doesn=t necessarily sound like singing in a traditional sense. I=ve heard it described as Ahalf singing, half talking.@ Not only that, he emphasizes each syllable while he sings, instead of stressing vowels like most vocalists. In that sense it makes it fundamentally similar to rap, but it certainly doesn=t sound like traditional rap either. It can only be discerned as McCrea=s distinct sound and it=s the first thing you hear in ARuby Don=t Take Your Love to Town.@ While everyone there knew who they came to see, it was like the band came out and said, AHere is Cake. Enjoy.@ There was no other band it could=ve been cause no other band has a singer like McCrea.

The set started out strong and while I would=ve chosen a better set list, I was still more than content with what they played. AJolene,@ one of their first hits and my second favorite song, made it=s way into the set. Many other hits were played as well, including ANever There,@ Short Skirt/Long Jacket,@  ALove You Madly,@ and the non-single yet still popular AStick Shifts and Safety Belts,@ all of which I=m fond of. I did notice that they played a lot of covers though. They played AWar Pigs,@ a Black Sabbath cover, ASad Songs and Waltzes,@ originally a Willie Nelson song, and the aforementioned ARuby Don=t Take Your Love to Town.@ While it=s not a terrible thing to play three covers in one show, and all were performed incredibly, I still prefer to hear original material by a band when I see them live. This might just be bitterness at their failure to play my favorite song, AHaze of Love,@ but I digress.

For me, it always makes a show much more entertaining when the band interacts with the crowd. Some people prefer that they just stand up there and play without making conversation, and while I can see the point to that argument I just can=t agree with it. I don=t wanna just hear their music, I can do that at home. When I see a band, I want their personality to come out. This can happen while a band plays, but a little respite in-between songs always helps. I need nothing fancy, just a few words here and there to remind me that I=m not seeing some sort of musical automatons on display. While McCrea was the only band member to interact with the audience, he did his entire band=s worth of doing so, like a true frontman. Whenever there was a part of a song where clapping or singing from the audience was appropriate and McCrea wasn=t tied up playing guitar, he rallied up the crowd and got everyone to do so. There were times where he got a clap going and, after some time of clapping, the audience stopped. As soon as he noticed this, McCrea ran to the front of the stage, with the most urgent of looks on his face, and got the crowd clapping again. I=ve never seen a performer so concerned with what the audience was doing. During one of their songs, someone took it upon themselves to throw a water bottle past his head, dousing him in whatever liquid was in it. The look on his face when this happened was something no words could do justice. Practically the whole audience laughed when they saw it, but he continued playing. After a few more songs, he berated the audience member who threw the bottle, which served to rile up the crowd again. It was magnificent.

McCrea had one more spectacle in his performance when he told the audience that the small sapling of a tree potted in the center of the stage is to go to the first audience member who could properly identify it. He claimed that we were to do this Ain an orderly fashion@ meaning Aeveryone raise their hand and I=ll call on you one at a time.@ This was during the set that he did this. And we obeyed. He gave us a couple of hints and scolded the people shouting out answers without raising their hands.  After a series of failed attempts at naming the plant, McCrea claimed that we=d Abe here doing this until Starland Ballroom closes if we had to” until someone guessed correctly. When somebody finally gave apple tree as their answer, he told him to hang around until after the show to claim his prize. When the whole ordeal was over, they resumed playing their closing songs, only to come out and play two more songs as an encore. No one in the audience moved or stoped cheering until the stage hands came on and started unplugging the equipment. McCrea=s manipulation of the crowd and the rest of the band=s exquisite, spot on playing made this show phenomenal.

As fantastic as the show was, there is that eventual Ahowever@ in my critique. I=m beginning to see the value of other factors that go into a live performance that can mean the difference between a phenomenal show and a truly perfect one. The major ones being the audience and the venue itself. I have a personal and strict policy that I only dance to music that I love (a trait that makes me rather unpopular at most parties around here) and, as I mentioned before, I love Cake. When the opening band (nobody worth mentioning unfortunately) finished their set, me and one of my friends moved our way toward the center of the crowd in front of the stage in hopes that there would some sort of dancing during Cake. We arrived at where we would normally find such things only to encounter the exact opposite: a crowd of people who seemed to believe that this crowded oversized bar distributes tickets in a fashion that yields a first come, first serve, pseudo stadium arrangement where wherever you first stand on the flat concrete floor is your designated area; who then proceeded to give us dirty looks for trying to get closer and made snarky remarks to themselves. Now I have no problem with people wanting to just sit back, chill out and simply enjoy the music, but if you wanna do that there=s no difference between standing up by the stage or back by the bar area. Leave the center area for the people who can=t sit still to adequately appreciate music and have room to move. The whole show I stood still, barely bobbing my head or shifting my weight because no human contact or motion seemed welcomed by anyone. It was a shame. Hopefully next time I catch this band it will be at a bigger venue with a friendlier crowd.