Cage the Elephant’s jukebox-like approach to songcraft has made the band a modern anomaly — a rock band that has enjoyed sustained mainstream success. The pride of Bowling Green, Ky., now residing mostly in Nashville, Cage boasts a deep catalog of energetic, clever tunes dating back to their 2008 self-titled debut, and an electric live show that’s held its own on the road with Beck, Foo Fighters and Metallica. Just before lockdown, the group took home a Best Rock Album Grammy for their fifth and latest LP, 2019’s Social Cues. The involvement of Battle Tapes audio mensch Jeremy Ferguson, who served as lead engineer on the record, made for a moment celebrated across the Nashville rock scene.
On Saturday, roughly a year after the Grammy ceremony, the group — the core four of singer Matt Shultz and his guitarist brother Brad Shultz, bassist Daniel Tichenor and drummer Jared Champion, plus multi-instrumentalists Nick Bockrath and Matthan Minster — reconvened at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio. The occasion was a live webcast benefiting Bay Area arts nonprofit Bread & Roses that was hosted remotely, and amusingly, by none other than Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. The sextet set up on the floor at the vaunted Berry Hill recording complex and plugged in just after 7 p.m. for a rapid-fire, workmanlike 70-minute romp through their songbook.
In the new and still-evolving world of livestreaming, it can be a struggle for bands to conjure the intimacy and electricity of a proper club gig. Having transcended the small-venue circuit long ago, Cage seemed liberated by the absence of a crowd to perform to and the implied responsibility to entertain. There was no stage banter, much less costume changes or pyrotechnics, and only subtle changes in lighting as one tune flowed into the next. This stripped-down atmosphere let the band dig deep inside the material as Matt Shultz played the part of ruggedly handsome, seasoned rock frontman to perfection, gripping the mic tightly and singing each line with smoldering intensity.
A variety of material showcased CtE's ability to swing between limbs of the post-punk tree with ease and agility. Highlights included Social Cues’ angular opening salvo “Broken Boy” and buoyant first single “Ready to Let Go.” Also well-represented were the contemplative Costello-esque stylings of “Telescope” from 2013’s Melophobia and manic, noisy Pixies homage “Sabertooth Tiger” from Cage’s 2011 second album Thank You Happy Birthday.
Tunes from 2015’s Dan Auerbach-produced Tell Me I’m Pretty, meanwhile, looked to classic-rock influences: “Cry Baby” and its Beatlesque coda, the slow-burning “Too Late to Say Goodbye” with its Phil Spector spaciousness, and the riff from “Cold Cold Cold,” a dead ringer for Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” The fire and ice lyrical imagery of the latter two songs, played back-to-back, was a clever touch.
Stylishly moody pitfalls-of-fame meditations from Social Cues — like the cautionary tale “Tokyo Smoke,” philosophical lament “Skin and Bones” and pandemic-relevant “House of Glass” — made up the heart of the set. But the band also nodded to longtime fans when reaching back to Cage the Elephant’s twangy, hip-hop-inflected “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” a strong radio single that helped the album earn a platinum certification in 2016.
Crisply mixed by Ferguson, the 20-song show felt loose but locked in, akin to eavesdropping on one of a band’s final rehearsals before leaving on a world tour. It made clear that as Cage enters their 15th year as a group, neither age nor the forced hiatus has dulled the members' ability to turn omnivorous tastes into something hooky, cohesive and all their own.
