BEN FOLDS AND CAKE

Style: Purveyors of tongue-in-cheek alternative rock and pop pair up.

Backstory: Cake cut through the ‘90s and early aughts’ alt-rock clutter with John McCrea’s monotone vocals and distinctively clever lyrics (plus Vince Difiore’s interchangeably bright and lonesome trumpet), scoring hits like “Short Skirt/Long Jacket,” a wry commentary on unrealistic romantic expectations. Folds also found a following in a similar time frame for his smirking songwriting as leader of Ben Folds Five (which was really a trio) and as a solo artist, with songs like the white privilege send-up “Rockin’ the Suburbs.” But he’s also known for his deeply emotional, and beautiful, piano pop, like the tender “The Luckiest” and heartbreaking breakthrough “Brick,” about an ex-girlfriend’s abortion.

Why you should go?: Cake hasn’t released a new album since 2011, but an album reportedly is on the way, and the band’s been known to include new material at concerts and shake up the set list with some of its dynamic deeper cuts. For Folds, this show should be a return to form with the full rock band, following a tour with chamber string group Ymusic and a solo run, both of which brought him to Milwaukee in recent years.

Opener: Synthesizer-led alt-rock duo Tall Heights, which will preview its own headlining set coming to the Back Room at Colectivo Coffee Oct. 14.

Time and place: 7 p.m. Thursday, BMO Harris Bradley Center, Maier Festival Park, 200 N. Harbor Drive.

Price: $52.20 to $76.75 at the box office, (800) 745-3000 and ticketmaster.com.