Dylan and I were both weirdly excited for this show. Ben Folds is a legend and Cake is fun so earlier in the summer when this tour was announced, we freaked. We were graciously given incredible seats for free through the bands and it had all the potential to be an incredible night. The weather was beautiful, the drinks were cold, and the vibe from the crowd was electric. We thought we were in for something incredible.

I'll get to where it all went wrong.

The opener, Tall Heights, were like a blend of Lord Huron and Mt. Joy and if the show had honestly just been them I would have been thrilled. I have no gripes with them, just like I have no gripes with Ben Folds. I actually only knew "Brick" before last night, as I'm sure most people who are unfamiliar with his music do. But the fact that I barely recognized his setlist and still loved the hour he shared with us onstage speaks volume. He took the stage and swiftly began playing "Phone in a Pool" and then transitioned into "The Ascent of Stan," both of which I didn't know, but still thoroughly enjoyed his energy and his tireless piano riffs. That's something I love - if you can play the piano, and if you can play it well, then you'll have my attention for hours.

Ben Folds, copyright Dylan Eddinger Photography

Folds seems like a really cool guy. He was backed by the opening band, Tall Heights, and they were mindblowingly incredible together. He's also super chatty onstage, which I also really liked about him. (I didn't like that about Cake.) He told us about his band's early, early days of playing Philly's own Kyber Pass (I know) and how Paul Simon once told him that if you can make Philadelphia fall in love with you, it says something. Of course applause were warranted from that, because it's nothing but the truth. Philly loves everyone, but I think we especially love Ben Folds.

His set was peppered with fan favorites like "Brick," of course, and "Levi Johnston's Blues" and "Rockin the Suburbs," and he even gifted us with our own special song, "Philadelphia, PA," a mostly instrumental piece containing "only the important words." You can probably assume what they were.

He's just a cool guy. He really is. He ended his set with "Not The Same" which included some incredible crowd participation. He orchestrated a beautiful three-part harmony that could have shaken the whole city and it went on and on and I can still hear it now as I write this. It was the perfect ending, and if only I'd known that the next set would have been a letdown.

Okay. So let's talk about Cake. I really, really wanted to be impressed by them. I went in the most excited for their set. Really. They had a long instrumental track play as the lights dimmed which then eventually faded into the Rocky theme song (because Philly) and that definitely got the crowd riled up, but then they played song no one knew.

Cake, copyright Dylan Eddinger Photography

I'm guilty of only knowing their hits, yes. I needed to hear "Comfort Eagle." I didn't hear it. The only truly classic Cake song we got was saved for the encore, "Short Skirt Long Jacket." And yeah it did what they wanted it to do, but I was just annoyed for most of this set. How is it that I loved Ben Fold's set, knowing nothing, yet basically was pissed off through all of Cake's, when I also knew nothing? I don't know. Dylan and I were basically gawking when they finally walked off the stage. How could they have cheated us like that? If you're a band like Cake, play what you know the people want to hear. I'm not trying to be an angry "only knows the popular songs" fan, but come on. You're Cake.

I don't know. Basically I left with a lot of feelings over this show and a new Ben Folds album saved into my Spotify playlists. Not one for Cake.

Cake and Ben Folds: "Comfort Eagle" was not in the set list so you can imagine how this night went

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