An evening with CAKE and Ben Folds

The Island Now

Forest Hills Stadium is set to host alternative rock band CAKE and alt-rock singer and songwriter Ben Folds, who will take the stage together on Friday, Aug. 17 at 6 p.m.

Since forming in Sacramento, California in 1991, CAKE has had studio albums that have gone platinum.  Their most recent, Showroom of Compassion (2011), touted by The New Yorker for its “deadpan brilliance,” became their first album to debut at  No. 1 on Billboard’s “Top 200” chart, selling 44,000 copies in the first week after release.

Today, CAKE’s original guiding principles have only grown stronger. Originally formed as a somewhat antagonistic answer to grunge, CAKE’s democratic processes, defiant self-reliance, and lucid yet ever-inventive music has made them a nation-state unto themselves.

In addition to writing, arranging, producing, and performing their own music, they have taught themselves to engineer and produce their recording projects in their own solar-powered studio in Sacramento, which actually generates more power than is needed to run it (causing the building’s electrical meter to run in reverse). 

Additionally, CAKE’s go green advocacy continues with the band giving away a native tree at every performance, and have done so for the past 12 years. When you attend a CAKE concert, there is always a tree on stage throughout their performance, and at some point during the evening one lucky audience member (who is willing the make the commitment to be a lifelong steward for the tree) gets to take it home. 

The band is currently in the recording studio working on their ninth album, due for release later this year.

Folds is widely regarded as one of the major music influencers of our generation. He has created an enormous body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and collaborative records with artists including Sara Bareilles, Regina Spektor, and William Shatner.

Folds’ most recent work, 2015’s SO THERE, blended original songs with his critically acclaimed “Concerto For Piano and Orchestra” and soared to No. 1 on Billboard’s “Classical” and “Classical Crossover” charts.

For over a decade, Folds has performed with some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras. In 2017, he was named as the first-ever artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.

Folds continues to perform with symphonies and also recently returned to solo touring, delivering a high-energy rock show with the intimacy of a solo piano performance.

To get tickets to see CAKE and Ben Folds in concert, go to www.foresthillsstadium.com or call 888-929-7849.

Forest Hills Stadium is located at 1 Tennis Place in Forest Hills.

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