The Sea and Cake

Billboard Live can suck the energy out of some performances, but it lends itself well to a group like The Sea and Cake. Melding post-rock, jazz and indie-pop songwriting, the Chicago quartet – whose number includes Tortoise founder John Entire on drums – have always preferred subtle gestures to grandstanding, making them well suited to a sit-down dinner venue like this. The band are currently touring their 2011 album The Moonlight Butterfly, a relatively slight record that was nonetheless hailed as their most adventurous in years.