check out photos from the show…

It’s always exciting to see a local band headline the Troubadour for the first time. Will they fill the room, and if they do, will they know what to do with a full house? The Troubadour is the bridge in Los Angeles that links the club bands to the mid-size theaters like the El Rey, Wiltern, and Fonda, and the radar of Live Nation/Goldenvoice, who run those theaters and literally every festival and larger venue in the country. IO Echo has got to be on the promoters’ radar by now, considering they opened Nine Inch Nails’ final show ever a few weeks ago, and their ubiquitous Sprint phone campaign—which seems more like a commercial for the band. The only questions left are, can they actually draw and can they deliver? On Tuesday the band answered: Yes, and yes!

This was one of those shows where you could see yes, this artist is a headliner. Some artists just have a star quality, and IO is one of those performers. She has a great backup band and as a front person, you can’t take your eyes off of her. She was climbing the lighting grids, exploiting the electric fans to launch her parachute blouse, jumping around and collapsing on the stage and interacting a lot with the audience. They broke out some new songs, with the crowd singing along to most of their older tunes. They also had plenty of fog and great lights which made for a really cool visual experience. They got called out for an encore which was their cover of The Beatles’ “She’s So Heavy.” It’s a really great cover that rocks hard and it appropriately shows off IO’s high voltage pipes, and builds to the epic finish. The Greek Goddess of Goth is currently playing Los Angeles clubs, but I wouldn’t count on her remaining at the club level for much longer.

Rainbow Arabia had the opener spot at 8:30, and I made sure to get there early for their set. The crowd had not arrived yet. Watching Silverlake/Echo Park bands play the opening slot at the Troubadour is almost like seeing them at a road gig. I really like this band and I’ve been watching their video for “OMAR K” on Youtube a bunch lately. They’re on the Manimal label, and that label has an incredibly high hit ratio with me. This neat band sounds like a less self-aware M.I.A., with leaner beats, unintelligible lyrics, and Middle Eastern instrumentation at its core. I can see Rainbow Arabia headlining the Troubadour someday soon. They have an interesting sound, and they are able to reproduce it as a duo in their live show with gleaming colors.

—Scott Schultz