I opened up TikTok the other day, as one often does. And between video clips of cats, people arguing, and advertisements for stuff I don’t need or want, I stumbled upon a clip from a 90s music video. The song was really fun, a great late-90s indie rock gem that I had never heard before. And when the vocals kicked in, I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why the voice sounded so familiar. The longer I watched the video, the more I realized who was behind that voice: Officer Wiegel from Reno 911!
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With a little digging, I found out just how insanely cool Trudy’s actress, Kerri Kenney-Silver, really is. She was a core part of the 90s indie rock band Cake Like, where she served as the band’s lead singer and bassist.
Kerri Kenney-Silver, the Actress Behind the Hilarious Officer Wiegel From ‘Reno 911’, Was Once in a Crazy Good All-Girl Indie Rock Band
Cake Like was an all-female indie rock outfit based in New York City. Kerri Kenney-Silver (then Kerri Kenney) served as the lead singer and bassist, Jody Seifert played drums, and Nina Hellman took on vocals and the guitar with the band. The trio formed back in 1993 when Kenney-Silver and Hellman met during an experimental theater class at New York University.
The pair decided to put together a band and would soon add Hellman’s roommate, Seifert, to the mix.
Like many bands from that particular era, the trio did not have any experience with music. Their contemporaries, the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill, had a similar start without much experience. Either way, they decided to give it a shot and debuted with a pretty unique style. Think of Cake Like as erratic spoken word poetry, mixed with avant-garde guitar rock.
Not long after they formed, the band was signed to Avant Records. They produced their first LP, Delicious, in 1994. Bruiser Queen would follow in 1997, and their final album would be Goodbye, So What? in 1999.
During the Cake Like years, Kenney-Silver continued with college and join a sketch comedy group that would eventually get their own show on MTV called The State. By the mid-1990s, she kicked off a successful career in comedy that would lead her to join Reno 911! in 2003. By 1999, Cake Like would be no more.
To be honest, I would love for a reunion to happen. Or at least, I’d love to see Officer Wiegel in a band. Not only is Kenney-Silver hilarious, but she’s quite a talented musician.
Photo via screenshot of Cake Like’s music video for “Lorraine’s Car”, 1997, on YouTube
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