Live: Sea and Cake at the Troubadour

At Thursday's Troubadour show, the grimaces on Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt, the fine-doodling guitarists for Chicago's Sea and Cake, were no match for John McEntire's drum face. The percussionist for nearly every Tortoise-related band in existence smiled, contorted his lips, stuck out his tongue, swirled his head and tranced out before cartoonishly snapping back to attention for every beat he finessed and nailed to his kit. And it was a marvel to watch, especially because rhythm is the skeleton that holds together Sea and Cake's pink-fleshed jazz-pop.

Kicking off with some gentleman's funk from their new album, "Car Alarm," Prekop wasn't happy with the swampy mix on stage. The levels continued to be off for "Middlenight," a swashing cut from last year's "Everybody," which apparently kicked off a new productive period for the band that debuted in 1994. He shot snake eyes at the sound booth more than once and asked for adjustments on the guitars.

But sometimes the best recipe for vigorous jamming is a beef with the sound man. Sea and Cake played a determined set from there on out, which dropped into older material including "The Argument" from "The Fawn" and "An Assassin," which Prekop introduced as one of Prewitt's favorite songs that's still, he admitted with a half-smile, "growing on me." Another treat was a rare delicacy off of the '90s opus "Nassau," the all-instrumental "A Man Who Never Sees A Pretty Girl That He Doesn't Love Her A Little," introduced with bleeps of static and always threatening to dash itself against the rocks.

In a conversation after the show, Prewitt revealed that it was hard to know what to do with the conundrum of pleasing the audience with old songs, while still showcasing the new work. Half of the dilemma has been solved for him: "It's been great," he said, "to see just as much reception to the new work as the old." And to freshen up the formula, Sea and Cake dropped some of the standards they dutifully played on last year's tour, such as "Jacking the Ball." It's been a work in progress, though. "Some old material had to be ditched, after we played it on the East Coast," he said.

What is left of the old sits well with the new, creating a pastiche of watercolor sound, fitting for this band with nearly every member also working in the visual arts. "Parasol" from "Nassau" closed the encore set, one last patch of cool from mid-'90s Chicago.

-- Margaret Wappler

Photo courtesy of Thrill Jockey