with Six II Chaos and Roister. Thursday, December 21, at the Grand Emporium.
Last month at the Madrid Theatre, Regina Spektor spent a song striking a drum with one hand and playing piano with the other, maintaining complex, divergently paced rhythms and melodies while singing dramatically. In the "doing one thing with one hand and something else with the other" music category, Spektor's performance earns top honors. However, Echo the Sky's Caleb Blacksher, who simultaneously taps keys, strums proggy riffs and handles lead vocals, makes a strong second-place bid. The Kansas City duo also includes Jesse Conlee, whose skittering drumbeats add jazzy sophistication to the band's earnest modern-rock tunes. Lyrically, Echo the Sky combines grandiose romantic sentiments with insecure musings, with Blacksher sustaining his confident delivery even when declaring himself undeserving.
