99X's summer series delivers free Cake

In their free Downtown Rocks series, 99X brought Cake to Underground Atlanta at no cost to its Freeloader members. For those of you looking into being Freeloaders, the application is readily available on the 99X website, and for those of you too lazy even for that, don't worry: they don't check. The crowd was jam-packed as openers including Stereophonics performed set lists for the audience.

The Downtown Rocks series is located conveniently near the Five Points station on MARTA, from which you can follow your ears to find the show and vendors nearby. As most of you are aware, Saturday night was plagued with rain to finish off a week of rainy event nights including the Fourth of July and Flicks on Fifth.

However, with the heat and sweat of a summer crowd, the rain was refreshing and even better than no rain at all.

During their set, Cake played a host of their favorite songs, including "Sheep go to Heaven," "Stickshifts and Safety Belts" and "The Distance."

What was unexpected was their cover of "Guitar Man," which John McCrea mentioned to be a well-written song about years of touring, adding it was written in the '70s before the audience was even born.

No complaints here about wild card songs, but the Sacramento quartet threw a stone in the gears with their set. Popular songs like "Short Skirt/Long Jacket," "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle" and "Never There" weren't included, and the one-song encore was somewhat predictable: a cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive."

True to their pragmatic perambulations, McCrea snidely made remarks on topics discussed in their anti-hipster mythos of lyrics ranging from public transportation to social mores. The scenic locale and well judged lighting on the stage made for an ambient clarity not held by many concerts. Good job on 99X's part.

However, don't plan on attending future Downtown Rocks events unless you can hold your own in a crowd. The pervasive domineering of crowd dynamics can overshadow the placid environs engineered by 99X.

The all-ages crowd was subject to crowd surfers flailing their legs around so a good deal of people had to keep their guard up for the dearth of crowd control.

Although bouncers were present at the event, most of their work involved collecting the crowd surfers who made their way to the front. The reach of the police was limited to shining lights on miscreants.

Eventually, concertgoers took to climbing traffic posts and taking crowd dives. There's nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that it was a Cake concert and a good fraction of the crowd was getting really pissed off.

At my position in the front I could see a pot-bellied, mustached policeman singing along, ignoring the need to go into the crowd to stop the jumpers and snapping souvenir shots with his camera.

Way to keep it up, Atlanta's finest. Not that I can blame him, he was paid to have a front and center position at a Cake show. So if you plan on attending these shows, choose your place in the crowd carefully or go in a group.

Tickets to future events are free to the unmitigated whole of music lovers who find their way there. However, the event is held for the 99X Freeloaders. In order to sign up and join, visit www.99X.com and fill out a quick survey for free membership. Future acts for the event include Weezer, Chevelle and Garbage. Check the website for event dates and directions.