CONCERT REVIEW: Cake @ The Mann 9/15

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CONCERT REVIEW: Cake @ The Mann 9/15

POSTED: Thursday, September 16, 2010, 8:00 PM

Filed Under: Music | Concert Review concert photos

photos | Patrick Rapa

The Given Tree I have been to many rock n' roll shows in my life. I have to been to only one in which the band gave away, to one lucky concertgoer, a tree — a Fuji apple tree, to be precise, which said recipient was instructed to plant within a month and send photos to the band's website, and forced to promise God and everyone that he would care for it for the next several decades. That is, in a sentence, an ample encapsulation of the tenor of Cake's performance last evening at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts: The California-based roots/alternative act often basks in its off-centeredness. Though the two-and-a-half hour performance — two sets and an encore — they blasted through the band's by-the- numbers arsenal of hits ("Short Skirt, Long Jacket," "The Distance," "Wheels," "Sheep Go To Heaven") and a couple of signature covers ("War Pigs," "Sad Songs and Waltzes") alongside tracks from their debut, 1995's Motorcade of Generosity ("Rock n' Roll Lifestyle") and a handful of new songs, and though the show occasionally got bogged down by singer John McRea's chattiness and applause-whoring (no, not every song needs an extended crowd-participation breakdown), the simplicity of presentation (no elaborate light show here) and sparse-yet-full sound (big-ups to the sound guy for making that happen in an open-air venue) worked to the band's advantage: It was, as McRea told us (and told us, and told us) less a rock show, and more an evening with friends. And an apple tree.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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