Disclaimer: No photos pass = no photos. Sorry everyone.

That title might sound like the perfect pepto moment–it’s not. This past Saturday, two SurfRhythm correspondents made their way to RFK Stadium (worst venue for a show ever, IMHO) for the DC 101 Chili Cook Off. Thanks to their double coverage, we are treated to an in-depth review of Cake’s set by Maura Henline and an overall show review by Kevin Henline (no relation outside of the fact that they’re cousins).

So let’s get to it. First up is the Cake review by Maura:

Chili Cook Off was my first time seeing Cake live and I was (and still am) pumped over the experience. The band’s high energy quickly whipped the crowd out of their beer and chili coma and into a dancing frenzy. After all, who can resist Cake’s killer combination of trumpet and bass?

The set started off with the perennial favorite of “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” and smoothly continued through choice picks off older albums—including “Sheep Go to Heaven” with maximum crowd participation. The band made a few stops by their newest album but for the majority of the set stuck with their much-loved older tunes. Cake’s final three songs of the set were honestly my favorite; the trio started with the oft-requested “Jolene”, then continued with “Never There” and closed with “The Distance”. The song selection was really excellent and left no room for the audience to deny that we had our cake and ate it too.

 

Next up we have Kevin’s general review:

Like many people en route RFK this weekend, I didn’t fully anticipate the degree of delays that would be experienced on the Metro (our fault as it was well publicized), keeping me from seeing Neon Trees,  who I really wanted to see, but what happened next really amazed me. The main act I was there for was Awolnation–I’ve been really into his stuff simply because of the range of emotion poured out on his debut album Megalithic Symphony. Thanks to the Metro snags I get to the will call right as Awolnation is starting, and I’m thinking, HURRY! I tear open the envelope to find two tickets where there should be four <grimacing>.

I will take a moment to say that ticket/guest list mixups are par for the course in this business. Dave, the Chili Cook Off publicist, was unable to get me a photo pass so he generously dished up the two extra tickets (4 altogether). Yet somehow will call was two tickets short. Dave the publicist fixed the problem in minutes, but Mr. Will Call Mouthbreather takes another 30 minutes and a lot of arguing with just to hand over the two tickets WITH MY NAME ON THEM!

Standing there dealing with this dude, Awol is now jamming, and I’m getting agitated. But damn if he didn’t sound great, segueing into “Not Your Fault”, setting the crowd off and getting most fans to sing along.  and the rest of AWOL’s set, I stood at will call watching the set that had lured me to this event, every 5 or so minutes checking in with this will call manager (I.E. the colossal ass) telling me, Sorry he still hadn’t heard anything about me. Dave and I email back and forth; he tells me they are definitely at will call. So now I got a pocketful of Kryptonite and I’m about to go tell this guy how it is, but he is walking out of the box office. I scoot to the door, email in hand and ready to raise hell, the guy cuts me off, says he never heard anything about me, but here were two tickets I could “have”. I wonder how many times this guy told me he didn’t have my tickets, obviously enough that he didn’t want his staff to know what a colossal ass he was. Rather than tell him what a sad and pathetic job he did handling my situation, I decided to tell you readers about it instead. Oh, and AWOL was amazing, he sounded great, even from halfway across a parking lot.

Airborne Toxic Event’s set started a little sluggish but picked up steam a few songs in with lead singer Mikel Jollett climbing the scaffolding to get a good look at everyone, and they even threw in the often covered but always loved Sonny Curtis classic “I Fought The Law”. While initially underwhelmed with their set I must say with smokin hot viola solo’s from Anna Bulbrook, as well power vocals, I eventually came around. Of course they did follow that ill-fated AWOL set so I might have just been bitter. Actually I was bitter.

I always enjoy Cake, and with screaming brass and thudding bass lines these are some tried tested and true musicians. there is no smoke and mirrors or parlor tricks here these guys set up one great set then delivered it. But I defer to my cousin on the detailed review. She loves her some Cake.

I have followed Incubus for over a decade, and whereas I understand the direction Brandon Boyd has taken his band over the years I must say, in my heart I miss the old Incubus. Their last three studio albums didn’t impress me in the slightest (go ahead, pour on the hate mail). That being said, I assure you Brandon Boyd hasn’t missed a step, he sounds amazing and they did play some old stuff: “Privilege”, “Consequence” and “Pardon Me” off of the album Make Yourself and even dropped “A Certain Shade of Green”. I hope they play a throwback tour like STP is this year (keep your fingers crossed) .

All in all, the Chili Cook Off was a pretty good affair this year (I can’t condemn an event because of one person’s actions no matter how much I am inclined to). I will definitely be making a concerted effort to catch Awolnation again, and with a second album slated for some time this year, as well as a world tour, I’m sure there will more chances to see AWOL, without the problems of the will-call a-hole.