Music As Medicine: Cage The Elephant Bring Neon Pill Tour To Philadelphia’s Mann Center

Cage The Elephant brought their Neon Pill Tour to the amphitheater for a concert last Friday at Philadelphia’s Mann Center. It’s been five years since Cage released the Grammy Award-winning Social Cues, marking the longest gap between albums across the six they’ve released, and audiences have been clamoring to see the band, who was still riding high from their Madison Square Garden debut and appearance on Fallon.

Willow Avalon and her band opened the evening with a set of sincere, danceable, and rocking indie country music, weaving her delicate vocal delivery amid tasteful lead guitar work by JR Atkins and spoken word recordings of her grandmother.

As the crowd continued to pour into the venue, English singer Bakar led the growing audience through a set of experimental indie rock, dancing with members of the eager crowd and even stopping the music at one point to encourage the lawn crowd to dance harder.

The sky was dark and the venue nearly full by the time Young the Giant took the stage, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of their second album, Mind Over Matter, by bringing Coldplay-like energy to the now fully-formed crowd who sang along to every word.

By 9:30 p.m. or so, when Cage took the stage, the audience was ready to rock. The crowd was excited to welcome prodigal son Nick Bockrath, who grew up in the Philly suburbs and graduated from the now-closed University of the Arts before joining Cage on guitar and synth and eventually moving to Nashville. (Nick is a known quantity within jam band circles, collaborating with Joe Russo and serving as a founding member of Tom Hamilton’s American Babies.)

Cage came out swinging, opening the set with “Broken Boy,” the lead track from 2019’s Social Cues. Singer/songwriter Matt Shultz didn’t let a broken foot impact the energy levels at the show, scooting across as his brother, rhythm guitarist Brad Shultz, danced across the stage.

Bockrath switched to from synth guitar as the band moved into “Spiderhead,” from 2013’s Melophobia, and “Cry Baby,” another Cage album opener, this time from 2015’s Dan Auerbach-produced Tell Me I’m Pretty. (Bockrath also has toured and recorded with Auerbach.)

The band continued the set through a number of tunes from their three most recent albums, with Shultz leading the crowd through an “E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!” chant as Philly’s NFL team won their season opener against the Green Bay Packers and Bockrath thanked his hometown crowd. The packed crowd continued to sing along to every word, as the band played the Beck-esque “Good Time.” (Cage toured with Beck, who collaborated on 2019’s “Night Running,” on the Social Cues tour.)

Cage’s set spanned their entire catalog, including the newest of the new, some deeper cuts, as well as wordless singalongs, laser lights, and some Van Halen-style unaccompanied guitar work by Bockrath. Bockrath alternated among his Fender Telecaster, Gibson SG, Gretsch, and sparkly red Harper “Marilyn” guitars, as he traded off electric and acoustic guitars throughout the set.

The band closed their set with “Sabretooth Tiger,” from their third album, Melophobia, and returned for an encore of pre-Neon Pill songs, closing the show with. “Shake Me Down,” “Cigarette Daydreams” and “Come a Little Closer.”

It appeared the Philly crowd appreciated the variety of tunes played throughout the night. Fans can eagerly look forward to the next show, hopefully with a lead singer with two fully functional feet!