Cake Is Left Out In The Rain

10/13/1998 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dev Sherlock

(10/13/98, 6 p.m. PDT) - Moments before Cake was due to take the stage Monday night at New York City's Bowery Ballroom, fire broke out in the building next door to the venue, forcing an evacuation.

The band and sell-out crowd waited outside in the rain for an hour until the blaze could be extinguished. The crowd was re-admitted and the cowboy hat-sporting five-piece, including new guitarist Xan McCurdy and bassist Gabe Nelson, took the stage shortly thereafter. Frontman John McCrea commended Nelson for reporting the fire--apparently, the bassist was on the roof of the venue having a smoke when he spotted the flames and notified the authorities.

Cake was scheduled to play a second New York show tonight at the same venue. The band's latest album, Prolonging The Magic, featuring the top 10 modern rock hit "Never There," was released last week by Capricorn Records.

A myLAUNCH feature on Cake will be up in the coming weeks.

-- Dev Sherlock, New York