USA: BAND 'CAKE' START THEIR U.S TOUR BY PLAYING CONCERT AT A FAN'S BAR BITZVAH COMING OF AGE CELEBRATION

Record ID: 545704

  • Title: USA: BAND 'CAKE' START THEIR U.S TOUR BY PLAYING CONCERT AT A FAN'S BAR BITZVAH COMING OF AGE CELEBRATION
  • Date: 27th February 1999
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) VOCALIST JOHN MCCRAE AND BASSIST JOHN ROPER SEATED, JOHN SAYING: "You know, Cake is very much pro rite of passsage, we think there aren't enough rites of passage in mainstream American culture..." ROPER SAYS: "We can bring back the draft..." MCCRAE SAYING: "Yeah, that's a good hard-ass becoming a man thing, you know..."
  • Embargoed: 14th March 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DEERFIELD BEACH, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVACKQK7PG59EXVF420SU7CBRIN1
  • Story Text: Sacramento rockers 'Cake' began their US tour in a most unusual fashion; they said 'yes' to a fan's request to perform at his bar mitzvah.In contrast to the sentiments expressed in their recent single 'Never There', the band is determined to take their tongue-in-cheek, offbeat, country-tinged music wherever their fans lead them.
    Capricorn/Mercury recording group Cake may be known for their breakthrough 1996 hit "The Distance" and their current hit single "Never There", but Mitchell Schop of Deerfield, Florida will likely remember the band for their recent performance at his Bar Mitzvah.
    The multi-platinum selling artists decided not only to play at Schop's coming of age ceremony, but to make the performance the first date of their current North American tour.
    After receiving a letter from him, vocalist John McCrae and the band decided to pack up the tour bus and make the over 3000 mile trek to Florida to play for their young fan, who was also required to sing his favorite Cake tune over the phone.
    Surrounded by only sixty of his friends and relatives, Mitchell was given a special welcome into adulthood during the traditional Jewish ceremony saying "This is my dream come true.I will never forget it."
    Lest thoughts of unabashed kitschy promotion come to mind, it is worth noting that this is the type of band that has probably played all the local venues in their hometown Sacramento and most of the spots in the musically fertile San Francisco Bay area, cultivating a substantial fan base along the way.
    With their third release, "Prolonging The Magic", Cake continues to maintain the lyrical balancing act that their listeners have come to expect since their formation in 1991.
    While wry wit and biting irony dominated on the first two albums, the process of evolution has found Cake testing and revamping their sparse sound and lyrics in search of the perennial artist heaven: continued success in the face of changing musical influences.
    As the lead vocalist of the country-influenced rock band, John McCrae acknowledges that irony is a hard habit to kick, as shown by the album's title "Prolonging The Magic".
    "I suppose I realized how chickenshit irony really is," he says."It's really a good coping mechanism, but it prevents you from having a complete human experience when there's always some part of you that's snickering.Irony is something in which you recline; it's not something you do out of strength."
    Cake's performance at the Bar Mitzvah was the first show of the band's 1999 touring season before heading to Europe in March.
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