05. August 21, 2002 - Cleveland, OH - Unlimited Sunshine Tour

Venue:  Tower City Amphitheater

Lineup:  CAKE, The Flaming Lips, The Hackensaw Boys

I had been a huge fan of CAKE since my friend Nick introduced them to me on car rides to school, and I had been looking for my opportunity to see them for years.  Nick and I bought tickets, but Nick couldn't get off work until the evening.  I remember Nick driving us up there in about 3/4 the time it would normally take, but by then we had missed Modest Mouse, Kinky, and De La Soul's main sets.

We arrived a few songs into the Flaming Lips and all I remember were great versions of Yoshimi and Do You Realize?, performed with fake blood rolling down Wayne Coyne's face.  He had a camera on his microphone, so there was a huge video of his bloody singing face behind him.

CAKE was good, but their show was fairly short due to the other bands all going a little long.  I bought an awesome white Unlimited Sunshine Tour shirt and a CAKE van shirt as I entered the venue.  I was still buying a shirt at every show at this point, and while my previous shirts saw little to know use, the CAKE shirts got worn a lot.

Even at the time, it was strange to have CAKE headline the show.  The Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse had large followings, and De La Soul are hip hop legends,  and all of them have long ago completely eclipsed CAKE in relevance and listener-ship.