All photos and words by me for BUZZBANDS.LA

Former Walkmen lead singer Hamilton Leithauser is making music under his own name now, but Thursday night’s show at the Echo was hardly a solo performance.  A backing band of eight other performers accompanied him in support of his new album “Black Hours,” an adventurous collection of moody and thoughtful songwriting. Leithauser’s set consisted of almost all songs off “Black Hours” in a slightly different order and with the added elegance of strings,  fans at The Echo got to see what he does best: blurring musical edges.  Opening the night with “I Don’t Need Anyone” from the album, Leithauser showed off his brooding and slightly grainy vibrato. His songs charmed the crowd with a blend of rock and strings and retro-collage (think Sinatra meets Dylan meets indie). Hamilton Leithauser clearly has not lost the aggressive bravado of the Walkmen; rather, he has added it to his solo appeal.  Along with Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend) on guitar, Skyler Skjelset (Fleet Foxes) on bass, Leithauser’s songs got the sophisticated oomph they deserve. His lyrics are quite lovelorn, and it shows that Leithauser struggles with wavering emotional themes as he performed “I’ll Never Love Again” and “In Our Time (I’ll Always Love you)” back to back.  The crowd proved to be very polite, some yelling out phrases of endearment rather than asking for Walkmen songs and many of them singing along with unmatched vehemence. Those who did not know all the lyrics were still just as captivated by Leithauser’s passionate baritone wail, which was strongest during encore-song “Bless Your Heart.” Leithauser’s melodramatic palette and musical dexterity have certainly propelled his white-collar cool into something modern to recharge old fans and gain new ones.  L.A. psych-pop group Avid Dancer opened. Fronted by ex-Marine Jacob Summers, Avid Dancer performed several gorgeous pop nuggets of bright and intoxicating vocals paired with hazy blues guitars. They slid the audience into a mist of surf-rock-psych-pop that hit in all the right spots.