Concert review: Rain doesn't stop the party as Cake close Calgary Folk Music Festival

Calgary Herald

2 days ago

The rain returned to Prince's Island Park Sunday evening just as headliners Cake broke into Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle, the 1993 single from the California band that began their journey as unlikely rock stars.
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Roughly half-a-dozen or more songs into the evening, lead vocalist John McCrea looked out into a sea of bopping, sloshing fans in rain-slicked ponchos and asked 'Is it sorta raining out there?'
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Three days of wet weather had turned much of Prince's Island Park into a muddy mess on Sunday evening, but it would be hard to find anyone in attendance who wasn't wearing a smile during Cake's set. It might be one of the most entertaining, f finales of any folk festival in recent memory. Thirty years after the band hit the mainstream with its unique brand of 'quirk-rock,' McCrea remains one of the most unusual frontmen since David Byrne. These days, he gives off a vibe that suggests a goofy, near-retirement grade-school science teacher letting his hair down on a field trip. But there is no denying his magnetic appeal.
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After a comically long and epic intro of piped-in triumphant music, the band appeared on stage and eventually kicked off the set with the clever Frank Sinatra and Sheep Go the Heaven. The latter became the first of many endearingly odd singalongs. It happened again with an extended run through the catchy Sick of You and Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps, their 1996 English-language cover of the Cuban favourite. McCrea even managed to turn the 2024 single Billionaire in Space, the first new music Cake has released in more than seven years, into a singalong despite the fact that it likely has not be widely heard yet. Steve Berlin, saxophonist for one of Saturday night's headliners, Los Lobos, joined the band for their 2007 cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs and audience enthusiasm hit a frenzied peak when the band played hits such as The Distance and Short Skirt/Long Jacket. On the surface, the band seems like an unlikely stadium act. But those disco bass lines, blasts of trumpet and catchy hooks remain endlessly endearing.
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It was a nice send-off for audiences after a mucky few days of inclement weather.
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The festival survived what artistic director Kerry Clarke called 'the soggiest event we've had in years if not decades,' with a sudden thunder storm and downpour halting the music temporarily on the main stage on Saturday.
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But the show otherwise went on Saturday, with main stage acts Madeleine Peyroux, Le Mamans du Congo X Rrobin, Los Lobos and Steve Earle shaving five to 10 minutes from their sets to accommodate the delay. In the end, the evening came to an end only half-hour after the planned 11:30 p.m. finish.
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'We've had bad rain, but probably the worst was 25 years ago where it poured all day,' says Clarke. 'There's always rumours of rain at our festival. In the afternoon the skies open up for half an hour and then it's clear. It's my fault, last year I was complaining about how dry the site was and how there was no grass.'