In the large flat building of Northern Lights in Clifton Park, Cake made another great stop in their tour on Saturday December 11th. Their latest tour comes after their release of “Pressure Chief,” an album continuing in the Cake style. Anyone looking for something outrageously new won’t find it here, but the songs themselves aren’t more of the same. New ideas and tunes to get stuck in your head are prevalent. They only played three songs from their new album, hardly trying to publicize the release.

The feeling that I got as soon as the first song started was that John McCrea, lead singer, was quite disenchanted with the crowd; not necessarily on a personal basis, but more generally. It seemed like, in his mind, we’re all sheep being moved around from one pasture to another, drinking, and lip syncing wherever we go, never being creative on our own. Every song was sung off beat, maybe to throw off the crowd, maybe just because. It seemed that each was tension building, until finally on the song “Nugget,” McCrea had the crowd sing part of the chorus, and he wanted one word left out. People in the crowd kept shouting “Shut the **** up,” so the band just kept playing the riffs for the one part, threating to do so for the rest of the night until the entire crowd finally followed and sang “Shut the **** up.” Now this might not sound fun to you, being harassed to follow orders at a rock show—while simultaneously being assaulted for not being individuals enough—but such is the balance of the world. The guitar solo during the song, combined with the fact that this normally doesn’t happen at a show, made it all very enjoyable. This episode came just before they played “Rock N’ Roll Lifestyle” which is about how we’re all conformists, with lyrics like “excess ain’t rebellion, you’re drinking what they’re selling.”

McCrea also asked the crowd if anyone knew how much of the world had running water. Some people actually guessed too high, around 60 percent, while most under-estimated, the real number being around 35 percent. Cake has always been a political band in this kind of way if you listen to their lyrics, disenchanted with much of the populace while trying to point out that they, and most of their fans, are the lucky ones in the world.

With 14 songs and two encores, the show was awesome. They mixed things up a bit while playing lots of great tunes. “Sheep Go to Heaven,” “Stickshifts and Safetybelts,” and “Love You Madly” were adored by the crowd. As well, for an encore they played one of their best, in my opinion, “The Distance,” and ended the show with their cover of “I Will Survive.”

It’s hard to say who would like Cake’s music. They have witty lyrics like the Bloodhound Gang, without the popular perversion, as well as strange beats and rhythms. If you’re a fan of Butthole Surfers, the Pixies, or Beck, then you’ll like Cake. It’s energetic but slow-paced, charged lyrically but at times empty of meaning. If you like fun music, then listen to them. As far as an introduction album, I’d recommend picking up “Comfort Eagle” or “Fashion Nugget.”