Black Oxygen touring toward Columbus with ‘American Dream’

Not every up-and-coming band gets the opportunity to open for bands it admires, but Black Oxygen is doing just that as it embarks on its “The American Dream” tour.

Hailing from Kansas City, Mo., the trio is slated to open for Nonpoint and Taproot Friday at Alrosa Villa.

“The tour is going great,” said Scott Taylor, Black Oxygen’s manager. “Feedback has been excellent and the band has really been getting nice crowds, even for opening.”

Having a single featured on ESPN doesn’t hurt, either.

“We submitted the song (‘Take it to the Limit’) to ESPN and they really liked it,” Taylor said, adding the network especially liked the name of the song.

David Lyle, 21, lead vocalist and guitarist, said the trio went to high school together and has maintained a friendship for years. Drummer and brother of David Lyle, Nick Lyle, 19, and bassist Jordan Myer, 20, round out the band.

David Lyle said Black Oxygen was not the first name imagined for the band, but it was the one that stuck.

“We had a lot of names in mind and it was just one of those (names) that we just thought sounded cool, so we took that one and it’s worked for us ever since,” David Lyle said.

The band’s sound has been compared to that of 1990s grunge and 1980s hair bands.

“They are an interesting crossover between a lot of influences, like Alice in Chains, but at the same time they have catchy big choruses that go back to the 1980s even though they still sound current,” Taylor said. “They kind of have their own sound.”

Black Oxygen played its largest headlining show to date Sept. 22 at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Bonner Springs, Kan., with a crowd turnout close to 15,000 people.

“We expected a good amount of people but it was actually more than we expected,” David Lyle said.

“Our concert promoter predicted 11,800 and it is definitely something we’re very thankful for.”

The next steps for the band are to release another single and hit the studio again before touring next year.

“We will be releasing a single called ‘American Dream,'” Taylor said. “From there, we’re going into the studio in January to record new music. The singer (David Lyle) has tons of material and we thought, ‘let’s get recording soon so we can be ready for festival season next year.'”

Tickets for Friday’s show are available for $19.75 through Ticketmaster. Doors open at 6 p.m. and local bands One Pretty Minute, Noise Auction and Evadell Drive are also performing at Alrosa Villa, located at 5055 Sinclair Road.