Echosmith, Lisa Heller and Jackie Evancho at Brick & Mortar Music Hall

by Petyr Campos

Headlining Thursday night at the Brick & Mortar Music Hall was the indie-pop trio EchoSmith. EchoSmith has been creating over a decade now, forming in Chino, CA in 2006. EchoSmith is comprised of family members Sydney (vocals, keys), Noah (bass, vocals, production), and Graham Sierota (drums).  The band has cited Coldplay, U2, the Killers and the Smiths as influences. American Christian rock band Switchfoot has also been a big influence for the band and the reason they started making music.

EchoSmith is currently on their 25 US city “Cool Kids – Decade Tour”. Echosmith’s new body of work finds them reconnecting with the DIY spirit of the band’s earliest days and includes their first-ever song written with no outside collaborators, “Hang Around”. I’ve been following EchoSmith since their 2013 ‘Talking Dreams’ album which contains two of the biggest hits, ‘Cool Kids’ and ‘Bright’.

Echosmith put on a great show with a 19 song playlist. The small and intimate stage at Brick and Mortar was perfect venue for Echosmith’s highly energetic performance which infected the audience to dance and sing along with them. Between songs lead singer Sydney spoke of their bands decade long journey of writing music and how their song-writing and musicianship as matured from their earlier teenage years. Echosmith has a strong and loyal following of fans of which I include myself in that group and look forward to seeing their career continue to prosper into the future.

Supporting Echosmith’s Decade Tour was Lisa Heller, an American singer and songwriter from Simsbury, Connecticut. She put on a lively performance, at one point jumping from the stage into the audience to sing right alongside them to one of her songs.

Jackie Evancho is a 24 year old American singer from Pittsburgh, PA. Jackie has been singing from a very young age and gained national attention with her 2nd-place finish in the fifth season of America’s Got Talent at the age of ten.  Since 2009, she has released nine albums, a platinum-selling EP and two further EPs.