iOEcho by D'licious Chaos Photography
by Notes From Vivace
photo by dlicious chaos photography
I came across IO Echo awhile back while scanning through a friend’s myspace friends list. (Definition of “awhile back,” perhaps a year and a half ago.) Why do I mention this? I say this, because it took me more than a year after this cyberspace encounter to finally catch one of their gigs. I caught one of their shows at Silverlake Lounge in September. I knew I had to catch their show again one day.
The chance to catch one of their shows arrived on a night at the Echoplex. IO Echo was the headliner for Indie 103.1’s Check One Two night. I was able to convince a couple friends that IO Echo was a band to check out. I drove over with one friend. We arrived a little later than we wanted due to parking issues. She attempted to convince me that it was fine to park along a curb marked load-only as it was after 6 p.m. I figured that wasn’t the best advice to take so we parked a couple blocks away from the Echoplex. We wanted to get to the Echoplex by 10:30 p.m. (The night was free before 10:30 p.m.; yes, we’re rather cheap.) We found ourselves street level with the Echo along with a random stranger. We all asked the door lady for the best directions down to the Echoplex. She pointed us towards an arrow sign across the street. We followed her directions while the random stranger went another way. The door lady knew the right way to go. We found ourselves speed walking towards the door and arrived around 10:28 p.m. IO Echo was walking past as we got our wristbands and I pointed out to my friend that we were there to see the people who had just walking by. (Note of interest and probably a take on her personality: IO Echo herself stood in line for awhile. Her band mate looked over at her and waved her over to the door, saying that they could cut in line as they were in the band.) Back to the point about being rather cheap: once in, we saw a rather sizable crowd inside so; hey, there are a bunch of folks like us out there these days.
We hung out for awhile, checking in with our other friend who had arrived separately. Then IO Echo came on stage. I’ll have to admit that I found it hard to get into the set during the first couple songs. I had this slight level of anxiety. I’d convinced two friends that this was a local band to check out. Also, this was only the second time I’d seen them so honestly I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I’d built up this band based off of seeing only one previous gig. Sometimes you see a band for the first time and think they’re great, and then the next time you scratch your head and wonder what you were thinking previously. After awhile I stopped thinking about my friends’ potential negative opinions about the band and got into the music. It was hard not to get into the music when towards the center of the floor the crowd was jumping to the music. The band ended with a couple songs that they just hit out of the ballpark. And then it was over. Hmm, how long was that set? Where was the encore? Hey, I wanted more.
IO Echo, the lead singer. The lead singer wore a white dress. From a certain angle, it sometimes looked like mental institutional garb. I don’t know if this was the intent. I suspect it was. IO Echo isn’t just a band. To me, it is a mixture of music and performance art. Throughout her set, she provided us body mimes of gun play, cord induced suicide and horror-flick-knife-assisted throat slitting (if only there was some fake blood to go along with the slitting of throat . . . kidding) – and to mix it up a little, playful bunny hopping. The projection screen that displayed layered images of IO Echo highlighted the imagery. All this was creepy good fun – IO Echo, a horror flick movie with magical vibes. This was a night we all went down the rabbit hole with IO Echo.
Addicted by IOEcho
Sidebar: We left soon after IO Echo and along the way to the car stopped by a vintage clothes store: Enid & Edgar Vintage. They are in transition between stores at the moment. The owner told us that they’d previously been located near the Echoplex. They’re currently on Sunset, but will be moving again to a new location at 1812 Sunset, which will be just east of The Echo. Their hours are going to be rather unique, open between 11 p.m. – 3 a.m. to catch the Echo Park crowd. If you’re in the area, check them out.
