[ATTENDED: January 24, 2020] Art d’Ecco [rescheduled from November 10, 2019, replaced Mattiel]
Art d’Ecco is a band from Vancouver. Well, technically, Art d’Ecco is the singer and it is his band. Either way it is a fantastic name which perfectly encapsulates the look of he and style of dandies from the Pacific Northwest playing excellent garage glam.
I didn’t realize that there were going to be two opening acts. So when The Retinas finished I assumed that Temples were coming out next. (I also assumed I’d be getting home really early if the headliners were going on at 9:15).
I was surprised when Art d’Ecco came out because, while I didn’t exactly know what Temples looked like, I was fairly certain they weren’t a glammy band. Plus, what happened to the singer’s big curly hair?
I was happy to discover that this wasn’t Temples because I didn’t think I could have been that off in my expectations. But I was even happier to discover this new (to me) band who were fantastic.
Art d’Ecco was fully glammed up with an amazing outfit and very cool shoes. The rest of the band also looked quite dapper. The bassist (I never quite caught their names) was in a nice suit and the drummer wearing a bandanna around his neck.
I enjoyed everything about their set. The bassist had a fantastic sound–deep and rumbly without being distorted. Art d’Ecco also mentioned that he had recently broken his collarbone (or shoulder or something) and was still managing to play (and sing backing vocals) perfectly.
The real marvel was the guitarist. He used a hollow-bodied electric guitar which usually produces a kind of retro sound, but he managed to get all kinds of interesting sounds from it–the retro sound, a twangy sound, and even some serious grungey distortions. He also managed some jangly chords and harmonics. My only problem was that it so hard to see him on the other side of the stage while he fleshed out this cool arrangements.
It was all held together by frontman Art d’Ecco. He played guitar for the first few songs and then took it off for the middle ones.
He had a great commanding presence and a terrific vocal range and delivery. 
I heard a lot of Sparks in his singing style (particularly in this song “Never Tell” which was outstanding). There was a sense of Bowie in his delivery, but not in the song structures–it was more of a garage glam, which I really liked.
He also had a lots of attitude which worked perfectly.
They played a number of songs from the debut album as well as his new single “I’ll Never Give You Up” although he didn’t talk much about song titles so I don’t really know what he played.
They played for a bout 40 minutes and the whole set was great. I hope they come back around as I’d love to see them again.
I was only bummed because he said they’d be hanging out after the show but they didn’t–I would have loved to chat with him a bit. But his album Trespasser is really good.
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