The arena-style club show you may not expect to see inside a bar

Echo Black — performing at Therapy Café in Dayton on Sunday, April 29 — formed in the era of streaming music.

While the New York-based glam-rock group released the early singles, “Burn Another Day” and “Perfect,” singer Danny Blu still believes in the power of the full-length album.

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“I always loved albums so I’d like to think they still matter,” Blu said. “I grew up in the ’90s and early 2000s and everything was about the new album and when it was coming out. Streaming sites didn’t exist. The industry has shifted to singles, which is fine, but I’ve always been into the whole long-playing album that tells an actual story in 12 songs more than singles.

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“We did a couple of singles,” he continued. “People liked them but I wanted to do something bigger so people could get the entire scope of Echo Black. It’s hard to gauge what a band actually is in one or two songs.”

Echo Black formed in New York in 2015, as an offshoot of singer Danny Blu’s solo career. The band’s full-length debut, “Dawn,” was released on Oct. 13, 2017. The studio sessions were a period of discovery for the new outfit, which is rounded out by Felix Skiver (guitar), Rob Gnarly (bass) and Billy Long (drums).

“We’d never written as a band before,” Blu said. “When it came to writing an actual album together, we didn’t even know what it is we do. We had to figure all that out and make it fit. The point of collaboration is to see how far you can push things before you lose what you were originally going for.”

While Echo Black is an independent act playing clubs, the group is heavy on theatricality, striving to bring an arena-rock-style show to intimate rooms.

“Our live show has come a long way, and it’s really our best asset,” Blu said. “We can write music and record it well and we can perform it, but our live show is something you wouldn’t expect to find for a band on our level. Often times we’re playing dive bars and we love it, but we have integrated a full light show that’s synched to our music.

“Our entire sound is self-contained,” he continued. “We bring a sound person with us so we don’t have to rely on anybody else and it sounds perfect every night. Our live show is super energetic and it’s full of lights and color and sound and fury.”


WANT TO GO?

Who: Echo Black with City of the Weak and In Loving Memory

Where: Therapy Café, 452 Third St., Dayton

When: 6 p.m. Sunday, April 29

Cost: $10 21 and older, $12 18 to 20-year-olds

More info: 937-461-4000

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