Cage The Elephant Goes 'Unpeeled' During Album Release Party

Cage The Elephant

Earlier this year in April, Cage The Elephant hit the road on their "Live & Unpeeled: The Acoustic Tour," playing nine intimate and unplugged shows throughout the US. Performances from this tour were captured for the band's Unpeeled -- their second live album (out on July 28th via RCA Records). Following the album's release, the band brought their "Live & Unpeeled" tour to the iHeartRadio Theater during their iHeartRadio Album Release Party. 

Unpeeled features 21 tracks, which includes their own songs from over the years, as well as three covers: The Stranglers' 1981 song "Golden Brown," Daft Punk's "Instant Crush" from the robot duo's most recent album Random Access Memories, and Wreckless Eric's "Whole Wide World."

During their iHeartRadio Album Release Party, Cage The Elephant performed songs from their new Unpeeled album like "Cigarette Daydreams," "Shake Me Down," and "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked," among others. They also performed non Cage The Elephants songs included on the record like Reckless Eric's "Whole Wide World" and The Stranglers' "Golden Brown." To close the show, accompanied by only a few strings, the band's frontman Matt Shultz performed "Right Before My Eyes" on his acoustic guitar -- totally unpeeled.

Hosted by Harms, during a Q&A, the band also talked about what inspired to put together an acoustic tour and make their acoustic Unpeeled album, as well as why they chose to include the particular covers that are on their album, and what it was like to win the Grammy award for Best Rock Album for their last record Tell Me I'm Pretty.

Cage The Elephant

iHeartRadio Album Release Party with Cage The Elephant Set List:

"Trouble"

"Whole Wide World"

"Ain't No Rest For The Wicked"

"Golden Brown"

"Cigarette Daydreams"

"Aberdeen"

"Shake Me Down"

"Telescope"

"Rubber Ball"

"Cold Cold Cold"

"Come A Little Closer"

"Right Before My Eyes"

Watch some of the live performances from Cage The Elephant's iHeartRadio Album Release Party below:

"Whole Wide World"

Cage The Elephant Performs 'Whole Wide World'

"Golden Brown"

Cage The Elephant performs 'Golden Brown'

"Trouble"

Cate The Elephant performs 'Trouble'

4 Things We Learned From Cage The Elephant's iHeartRadio Album Release Party

On where the idea for the "Unpeeled" Tour and Unpeeled acoustic album came from:

"Not too long ago, we were invited to play a benefit that Neil Young throws called The Bridge School Benefit, and one of the stipulations for the event is that everything has to be acoustic. And so Nick had done some string arrangements, and we brought in a string quartet, and we were just really pleased with it. It was fun to re-imagine the songs, so we decided to make an entire tour out of it. I think that we were just trying to give the best interpretation of each song, song by song, whatever it asked for."

On why they chose to cover "Whole Wide World":

"To be honest, I saw that movie [Stranger Than Fiction] with Will Ferrell, and loved it so much in that movie. Fell in love with Will, fell in love with him."

On their Daft Punk "Instant Crush" cover:

"We've been big fans of both Daft Punk and Julian Casablancas from The Strokes for a long time. When they did that song together, it was incredible. I thought it was, hands down, the best song on that record, and Julian sings the melody and it's incredible. So it was an easy pick for us."

On their Best Rock Album Grammy win for Tell Me I'm Pretty: 

"It very much was a blur. And honestly, I think we had the most epic, worst thank you speech ever at the end. I thanked my shoes, come on."

Cage The Elephant

Photos: Katherine Tyler


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