It should have been their time for escalation. But then the pandemic happened and Mother’s Cake seems to have blown their latest album ‘Cyberfunk!’ into the void. Some days on the road with the exceptional band from Austria.

Being on tour is hard work. Especially when you are a band in the twilight zone like Mother’s Cake. In their twelve years on the road they travelled in every possible way. From the bus that always was close to breaking down – and sometimes did – to extensive Nightliner-Tours as support for acts like Pentagram or Wolfmother.

This tour was supposed to follow the release of their fourth studio album ‘Cyberfunk!’ with 20+ dates in Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Switzerland. The plan: to bring the ‘Cyberfunk!’ all over Europe and harvest the seed they have been planting for years packed with continuous touring and recording. It seemed like the band was full of momentum. ‘Cyberfunk!’ could have been a huge step forward. A reaching out for new audiences. For the one who misses rock music that is not altogether embarrassing, for example. And it doesn’t have to be embarrassing as acts like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard or the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets have been proving as much for years. These guys keep the rusty wheel of rock music moving. And so does Mother’s Cake. And they are very good at it. Maybe the best they have ever been. They are tight. They are an incredible live-act. And they don’t take themselves too seriously. That is for sure.

‘Cyberfunk!’ is everything at the same time: It’s the 70ies with its super proggy approach and disco-feel. The 80’s with its synths (just listen to ‘Cybernova’ with its Phil-Collins-moment when the vocals kick in). The 90’s with its heavy riffs a la Rage Against The Machine. And, in the end, it is very much now. The first single ‘Toxic Brother’ has some serious King Gizz vibes and you find many more influences, styles and references on the record. Some more obvious ones like the Led Zeppelin hommage in the bridge of ‘Crystals in the Sky.’ Some, more like a nodding towards a certain way rock music turned out to be in the last four decades.

In the end, ‘Cyberfunk!’ is a celebration. A celebration of the beauty of prog-rock with all its creative freedom and space for experimentation. With the help of German producer-duo Raphael Neikes (Moonwalker Production) and Manuel Renner (Überlärm), the band managed to record a huge album. The song’s structures are way straighter than on the previous records – which made some fans turn their backs on the band, or at least very confused. They overlook the fact that there is still that filthy progginess Mother’s Cake is known for since their first album ‘Creation’s Finest’ hit the scene in 2012. And it hit hard. The live recording ‘Off The Beaten Track’ is still a reference when it comes to orchestrating a live video-recording – musically and aesthetically. It was the proof that there was a band rock fans have been wanting for. Combining prog, psychedelic, techno & funk in such an impressive manner, that there is no way around being stunned. Huge names float around when the band is trying to be described. Some hear Janis Joplin in Yves Krismer’s voice. Some hear Robert Plant. The band is positioned in the neighborhood of giants like Porcupine Tree, The Mars Volta or the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Funny, that the last two acts released some new material which let you forget that there was a time when it was not embarrassing to mention them as an influence.

Over the years Mother’s Cake released three studio albums and a couple of live-recordings. The universe grew and grew and so did the audience. People try to play their songs and upload covers to YouTube. Under every posting you can find someone asking the band to come to their country. The desire to experience the band, live, seems to be spread all over the world. Yes, there have been a couple of trips to other continents, with shows in Australia or India. But mostly the band has been touring Europe up and down. Approximately 500 shows in total. One can say Mother’s Cake did their homework before the release of ‘Cyberfunk!.’

The conditions for the next step were auspicious. But then the pandemic happened. The tour got cancelled. Dates were rescheduled again and again. The Cyberfunk! tour was broken into pieces. One of these pieces was a chunk of dates in October 2022 when the band toured the Netherlands, Belgium and England.

The original sujet for the tour. With dates for 2020 which were changed numerous times due to the pandemic.

Maastricht is definitely a good place to start. The band is up to play the Muziekgieterij. A location like a wet dream of every musician: Stagehands waiting. State-of-the-art equipment. Very stylish furniture with some futuristic retro chic. And food being cooked right before your eyes. The menu makes you wonder whether there is some holiday to celebrate. Everything is luxurious in such a way that you have to keep yourself from getting used to it. Because you know that this is an absolute exception. But the Muziekgieterij is not an exception in the Netherlands. The quality of the venues here is very high, in general. It seems like the country really cares about their cultural landscape and is willing to put tons of money into venues. Whoever came up with this idea: Thank you.

Around 100 people make it to the show. They get to hear the hits from ‘Creations Finest’ combined with new material from ‘Cyberfunk!.’ Nothing in between. No ‘Gojira,’ no ‘Killer’ no ‘Black Roses.’ The show is going back and entering something new, at the same time. The band plays as a trio which is very unusual for them these days, since ‘Cyberfunk!’ made them grow into a four-piece. Under normal circumstances Raphael Neikes (you might know him from his project Spiral Drive) joins the original trio. With him playing keys and some guitar, the band manages to get the multiple layer production of the new tracks on stage. But these days nothing is happening under normal circumstances. That is why the audience gets the old-school Mother’s Cake experience on this tour. The three-piece original. Three guys who know how to handle each other. The sound is more open. In parts, almost jam-like. And it is very heavy with its pitch-shifted guitars. The riffs are brutal, punchy and raw. It just blows you away. The audience has a hard time following with all the changes in the time signatures. You can see that the bodies and brains can’t get along in real time. But that does not keep them from having a good time. Everyone is moving differently. Everyone is feeling it. When you look into their faces, you find joy. You find amusement. You find disbelief that they are actually hearing what they hear. And with a little delay you find the heads shaking and the bodies wiggle.

After the show, Hannah is standing at the merch. It was her 17th Mother’s Cake show. And in a few days she is going to witness her 18th before raising her record to 19 at Den Haag. She is what you could call a super fan. She travels from city to city just to see the band play. And she is not alone. She brought Alex along. His ticker is at eight in Maastricht. He will make it up to ten a couple of days later. “The band is our life. You can have a bad day, but when the guys start playing you forget about your troubles”, Hannah says and pulls away the shirt over her left shoulder to show her Mother’s Cake tattoo – some roses and the logo of the band. Rumor says that this is not the only tattoo of this kind out there.

Super fan Hanna from Germany shows her tattoo

After a night in a faceless hotel, we head to Ittre in Belgium. A short stop at the outskirts of Brussels to pick up some gear at the headquarters of Highway Holidays. The company provides the backline and the van for the tour. Drum kits and amps are stacked up in a loft of an old business complex. The stuff is rented out in packages so that bands can hop on an airplane and jump right into the bus filled with equipment. It is a very convenient way to travel. Ittre is supposed to be around 30 minutes away from here, but the lady at the office tells us that she has actually never heard of that town before. Some sandwiches and a bumpy ride through narrow roads later, it becomes clear why. It’s right in the middle of nowhere. Some advanced containers are housing today’s venue – the ZickZack. It feels like a family business. Some older folks are bumbling about because the paella needs to be cooked and the bar needs to be cleaned. You can spot a tag of Kasabian in the backstage. Bummer: Kasabian actually never was at Ittre. That is the joke of the first hour. And it feels like this joke has been told for many, many years. The walls are full of posters showing bands that look like they have been on tour for the last 40 years. Their puffy faces are a warning not to make the same mistake and step into the area where rock is nothing more than a silly carnival, with all the costumes and wigs and senselessness pointing at each other.
Around 80 people made it this evening. You can spot some Mother’s Cake t-shirts. And in them: mostly guys with solid skills when it comes to singing along and punching the air in the joy of a solo or a rhythm-change. After the gig, a couple proudly says that they drove about two hours to see the show at the ZickZack. These are the places rock music is passed on from generation to generation. You have the old school rockers in leather jackets. Their grown up kids in skinny jeans and with receding hairlines. The kids of the kids stand right in front of the stage looking very skeptical about what Benedikt Trenkwalder does to his bass. The art of slapping – surely and justifiably – is a decaying one. Whatever your opinion on slapping is: what this guy pulls off is just unbelievable. The songs are a little faster than the night before. He still manages to slap that thing like there is no tomorrow. The grand finale of every Mother’s Cake show ‘Runaway’ leaves him room for reminding you that slapping actually is an impressive skill.

You can also see and hear that in Uden. We are back in the Netherlands at a 40k-person town, completely built from bricks. Just like in Maastricht, the venue is super tidy. The DePul houses one room for the bigger acts, one for the Mother’s Cakes of this world. The support act is one of these super stylish 60ies acts that the Netherlands is full of. Everyone is well dressed and tries to re-enact that romantic swinging 60ies vibe. But nothing sticks in the mixture of 2000s indie and slight prog-approach. They all melt into one uncanny bulk. Mother’s Cake delivers a very free set tonight. Perhaps because it is Yves’ birthday and there is some whiskey going around. The super-fans from Germany brought a present – an inflatable walking assistant. It gets its place on stage right at the guitar amp. Sometimes you can see it shake slightly and it is not quite sure whether the audience or the punch of the riffs are making it move.

“There is so much inspiration to find in the sound of Mother’s Cake,” mumbles a blonde dude in his early 20ies after the concert, “it made me want to become a better musician.” You find this kind of fascination after every concert. The audience is simply impressed by the musicality and skill this band shows off. It’s the most beautiful variant of skill. A dirty one which does not come from the brain, but from an urge and willingness to repeat it, and repeat it, and repeat it, until you are totally free in what you are doing. No wonder, why there is some serious number of cover versions out there. People all over the world try to grasp some of the magic.

Not quite sure whether it is because of Yves’ birthday. Or because the bar people of the DePul wanted to get rid of the last beer in stock. The evening ends in the kitchen. Blasting the latest release of King Gizzard and some Cid Rim over the kitchen’s sound system. Some frozen pizza is served, and so are litres of flat beer. The supply just never stops. And so it is no wonder that late into the night there is some deep talk with hookers and a heavy load of unnecessary cigarettes and even more beer. The breakfast just does not want to go in the next morning. Everyone is very slow. Everyone tries to avoid making any hectic movement. In this state, the bus heads off to Den Haag.

A stop at McDonalds and some burgers don’t manage to raise the energy level. In this state, a crowded city is the last place you want to be in. And Den Haag is a crowded city. Especially the Grode Markt, the square today’s concert is happening at. It is packed. This evening there will be a comedy show, no jazz concert, but hundreds of people. You need some fantasy to see how the restaurant space of the De Zwarte Ruiter could host a Mother’s Cake concert. There are still some people sitting on tables leaning over their beer when we arrive. But there is a strict plan: do not show up until eight. Start one and a half hours later. Only line-check. You need to be sure of what you do to handle that situation without any symptoms of stress, especially with the previous night in the bones. But somehow it works out and the show is going to be the most light-hearted one of the last days. There is some serious fuck it energy to the set. People gather on the balcony to see what is happening. A couple in their 40ies jumps up when the band rises into total madness at the end of ‘Lonely Rider.’ Jan Haussels elevates his drum kit into some kind of solo without the wackiness of an actual drum solo.The energy is tremendous. Parts of the audience are hugging and raising their fists in triumph. Everyone is joyful: old grey beards, hippies, metal fans, the stoners, and the geeks who come for the skill. Superfan Alex gets his toast for his 10th Mother’s Cake show. He and Hannah have to wait two weeks until they attend their next show in Germany. Tonight the band will sell the last t-shirts at the merch table. Happy for them. This way they avoid bringing too much stuff into the UK. There is still uncertainty about how to handle the whole Brexit situation with all its consequences. The overflowing bureaucracy is an additional and unnecessary burden for every tour. Anyway, the band is going to play some more shows in the UK with stops at Bristol, London and Manchester. The tone is a little rougher there. Venues don’t give a fuck whether you are there or not. Sound engineers, being incompetent, crash with a band with a declining energy level. Still, after every concert, someone overwhelmingly thanks the band for the performance.

It’s a weird twilight zone the band exists in. Everything is valid at the same time: It’s a professional production with a fascinating product. But at the end of the concerts, the band carries their gear to the van. It is rewarding seeing all the people showing up to the concerts. Still not close to the number the band deserved or was hoping for. Also the circumstances obstructed a stop in Amsterdam. The Paris show is cancelled cause of an organizational fuck up. Which leads to even more organizational fuck ups.

Mother’s Cake blows out the ’Cyberfunk!’ in an exhausting manner. No wonder the feeling crawls into the band’s mind that the record actually never got the release it deserved. No big celebration and no chance to reach the audience on an advanced tour. And so, the band is stuck in between the need to try to reach some more people with their ”new” album and focusing on fresh material.
Anyway, the sound does not fit into the Spotify logic – even when radio-like ballads like ’Love Your Smell’ made it into their track list. “In the 90ies Mother’s Cake would have played stadiums,” one guy at Maastricht said. Maybe he is right. Nobody knows. What is sure is that it’s not the 90ies and Mother’s Cake has to keep on trying to reach the people on the street. Growing an audience like this is very hard and the pandemic made it even harder. Seems like Mother’s Cake has to find you, somehow. And when it finds you, you know you are at a good place.

Max Ritter

Mother’s Cake Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp / Spotify / YouTube