Takes The Cake.

Scenes From Saturday Night's Hoodie Allen Show at the House of Blues.

For Hoodie Allen, it's the second time that's the charm.

Of course, the first time wasn't so bad, either. Last year, the New York City-based, University of Pennsylvania-educated rapper played a show at the Prophet Bar in Deep Ellum, selling out tickets just before doors opened and performing a fun and intense set to a crowd of 300 or so in the venue's small room.

But Hoodie Allen's offering on Saturday night at the House of Blues stood as a marked improvement over even that effort. This time through, tickets to his show would sell out five days in advance of his appearance. And, this time around, he would perform to a crowd more than five times larger than the first one he was met with in Dallas.

It was a deserved increase, of course. Last year's show came almost immediately on the heels off his All American LP release. This one came with that one having an even larger pull, and with another EP, Crew Cuts, only furthering his cause.

You could definitely see the increased fervor when you got to the venue. Some fans even waited outside the venue since the previous night just to be first in line and rush the stage once doors opened. Throughout the day, other fans would trickled in and join them in line. By 5 p.m., the line extended all the way into the parking lot adjacent to the House of Blues.

Talk about commitment. Because, even once security opened the doors and the crowds were allowed inside the venue, it would be a while before Allen would even take the stage.

The crowd, to their credit, didn't seem to mind the wait too much. Openers DJ Smiles and Aer greeted them first, starting off the night with a mini dance party. But as Aer finished up, the crowd would begin to get a little anxious. As Hoodie's band began to check their instruments, the fans couldn't stand it any longer, and “Hoodie!” chants erupted throughout the venue.

Then, right at 10:30, just as expected, the curtains opened. And so Hoodie began his set. And, also as expected, the crowd went wild.

He performed Crew Cuts and All American in near entirety, while still managing to add in some older stuff from past mixtape released Pep Rally and Leap Year.

But where Hoodie Allen really endeared himself to his audience was with his crowd interaction. As he does at every show, he stopped his performance mid-set to take pictures with his front-row fans. Later, during his song “Cake Boy,” he and his crew threw a total of 17 cakes into the audience — treats that fans had brought to the show in hopes of getting in, despite its having sold out. And, during his encore, he cleaned the crowd up, spraying the audience with water, while similarly tossing set lists, guitar picks and whatever else they could find on the stage into the crowd.

Only a handful of audience members actually left with these parting gifts, of course. But the rest of the adoring crowd still left feeling treated.