The Sea & Cake | Higher Ground | Oct 1

On Monday night, I caught The Sea & Cake at Higher Ground. Musically, the show was great. The band sounded better the other night than they did even ten years ago when I had last seen them.

My only complaint was their complete lack of charisma on stage. The songs would be grooving along and then, when they were over, there would be ten seconds of applause and then complete silence. The hundred or so fans there wouldn't utter a peep and the band would neither talk to the crowd or each other. There'd just be this awkward minute long silence as they'd set up for the next song. Weird.

I think Archer Prewitt could be Elvis Costello's stunt double...but, I guess, that would require him to move.

While most of the band was completely motionless during the show, drummer John McEntire was fairly entertaining to watch with his pained facial expressions and hulking over the drum set.

The bass player didn't move an inch either but wore a variety of amusing facial expressions throughout the set. The other odd thing to watch on him was his fingers. He had these short stubby fingers that looked like they wouldn't be built for music. However, those suckers were flying around his fretboard.


Sam Prekop couldn't move during the show because he had to read the lyrics off sheets placed at his feet. I'm guessing he just had them there as a security blanket since I can't believe he doesn't remember the lyrics to "Jacking the Ball" after playing it for thirteen years.

The set list include a lot of stuff off the new album which sounded good live and a smattering of tunes off the first few albums; not much from the electronic era. The highlight for me was "Leeora" which closed the main set and got a bit extended but not too jammy.

At the end of the show, Higher Ground handed out show posters that they had commissioned a local artist to create. The bubbles give a good representation of the band's airy sound.