Members of Cake are regular fixtures around Sacramento, their hometown; just last week, members have been spotted on the sidewalk outside Old Ironsides and on the Appetite Enhancement Ride on Thanksgiving Day. But to see the whole band play live is a rare treat. 

But the band has not been idle. The members are recording what will be their sixth, as-yet-untitled studio album - their first in six years when it appears next year - and Monday night they included their hometown fans in the process, running through a handful of the new songs in a surprise appearance live at The Blue Lamp, at Alhambra and N Streets in the Grid.

Several dozen people were turned away at the door when the house reached its capacity of about 200, but those who got in saw the band play an hour and a quarter set that started with a half dozen songs from the new album, followed by a dozen more familiar songs from the band's career, including hits such as "Never There" and a cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs." 

The familiar half of the set began with the band's first release, "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle," and proceeded with a string of familiar songs from fairly early in their career: "Italian Leather Sofa," "Frank Sinatra," "Mexico" and "Jolene." They drew hearty sing-alongs from the enthusiastic audience, and singer and songwriter John McCrea worked his traditional magic with his more-sophisticated-than-usual approach to audience participation, which actually added some musical - and not just theatrical - content to the show. 

But it was the promise of hearing new material that made the show special, and the new songs did not disappoint. Cake is nothing if not sonically consistent, the new songs sounding very much of a piece with songs from their 1994 debut. Though picking out lyrics was difficult in the all-concrete Blue Lamp, tracks like "Mustache Man" (with its local reference to the Tower Records-era bar the Candlerock Lounge on Watt Avenue) and "Bound Away" both stood out as fresh, and yet sounded like classic Cake. Hard to say, on one listen, where the new album, which is due out next year on the band's Upbeat Records, will stand in the Cake catalog. 

But the classic Cake sound is utterly unique, one of the most distinctive and durable of the alternative rock era. McCrae's deadpan vocals are supported by Xan McCurdy's snaking, raw-boned guitar lines, Gabe Nelson's funky, sinuous bass lines, Vincent DiFiore's precise trumpet flourishes and new drummer Tom Monson's steady drive. Cake's songs can come off as raw and simple, but they are anything but: McCrae and the band work long and hard to make sure that the melodies and McCrae's lyrics get maximum play and that every part moves the song forward, no one part getting in the way of any other. 

On top of that, when the band cuts loose jamming, as it did on "Italian Leather Sofa," with DiFiore's trumpet solo, or on "Jolene,' Cake gets up quite a head of steam. Credit new drummer Tom Monson for driving the songs, and as always, Nelson's brilliant bass lines, for keeping the band rooted. 

The evening ended that way, the band full steam ahead, the audience singing along, thrilled to be in such close proximity to such a great band.