Alt-rock act Cake brought its quirky brand of cool to San Antonio on Thursday night

Popular '90s alt-rock band Cake brought its quirky-yet-cool sound to The Espee Thursday night. The band demonstrated its enduring funkiness with a setlist packed with memorable tracks including "The Distance" and "Short Skirt/Long Jacket."

Other highlights included "Never There," "Sheep Go to Heaven,""Mexico" and the romantic track "Love You Madly." Songs such as the honky-tonkin' "Stickshifts and Safetybelts" served as reminders of the band's wide-ranging influences, which also span mariachi, disco, funk and folk.

Several covers made the cut, including Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and Black Sabbath's "War Pigs." The band also did its beloved take on the standard "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps," written in 1947 as "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" by Cuban songwriter Osvaldo Farrés and later recorded by Doris Day, among others.

Cake frontman John McCrea — who's starting to look more like a short-haired version of Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis these days — delivered on the monotone vocals for which he's known. He also sported a look just as sardonic as his lyrics, which included a T-shirt showing a sparkling kitten wrapped in an American flag and a pink trucker hat that read "Sassy Attitude."

The Espee was packed with "Betty Crockers," as Cake fans call themselves. The mostly Gen-X Betties were true die-hards, singing along to every word of even the most obscure tracks.

Several of Cake's songs were played at a slower tempo than originally recorded. It's hard to know whether that was due to the heat at the outdoor venue, the band mellowing with age or a combination of the two.

Though Cake has experienced some member turnover, multi-instrumentalist Vincent Robert DiFiore Jr. has been its MVP since 1991, contributing the band's iconic trumpet sound as well as keyboard, background vocals and some percussion.

After a brief intermission, McCrea came back to the stage standing next to a fruit tree nearly matching his height. He explained that the band has been giving away trees at every show around the world and added that one lucky audience member would go home with the one beside him if they could guess what it was.

Local mom Annie Bright raised her hand, excitedly shaking it. She correctly answered "Mexican plum" and was brought on stage to receive her prize.

McCrea made her promise to take care of the tree, plant it within one month and take pictures of herself with it for the Cake website, which features a map of the world and all the trees the band has distributed.

Bright told the Current that her husband happens to specialize in native plants.

"I think I just solidified our marriage," she said. "It wasn't the two kids — it was the Mexican plum."