Editor’s Note: Ben Folds knows how to make an entrance. The piano man from North Carolina, once part of Five now a performer of One, hit the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion stage Monday night (August 13) with a cover of “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” — fitting as rain from a coastal storm pounded down on the tent down by the water. He was joined on this night by Sacramento alt-rock survivors Cake and homegrown folk duo Tall Heights (who joined in with Folds at one point). According to Vanyaland’s Scott Murry, who photographed the show, Folds “was eager to share a song he wrote for Boston. ‘For lack of a better term, it’s called Boston Massachusetts,’ a nice instrumental where they harmonized the city name at the end.” Cake hit the stage with “a backdrop of mountains and forest… a small bulb tree on stage gets its own spotlight.” Frontman John McCrea declared it “a fire hazard,” but it didn’t stop the music. “On our website, there’s a map of entire earth,” McCrea told the crowd. “And in that map there are tree icons—one for every city we’ve given away a tree. When you click it, there’s a photo of that tree out there.” So, pretty awesomely, there are “Cake” trees worldwide from the band’s environmental good will. Dive into Murry’s gallery below.
