Even as sweat dripped from Axel Ellis’ face while performing with his band, Ax and the Hatchetmen, to a sold-out crowd at the Echoplex Wednesday night, he never stopped jumping around the stage with his guitar in hand. Rocking out with a mixture of old tracks and new songs from their recently released debut album, the crowd was captivated by his stage presence and infectious enthusiasm.

The Chicago-based indie alt-rock band’s stop in Los Angeles, as part of their “So Much to Tell You” tour, created a party-like atmosphere, with high-energy performances of songs like “Hotel Room” and “Love Songs” and support from alternative pop-rock band Kids That Fly.

Ellis, the band’s frontman, said that while the band always tries to put on a good show, they have a more fluid story to tell during their set now that the band has released their debut album, “So Much to Tell You,” featuring themes of young love and trying to be traveling musicians.

“We’re putting a lot of love into [our shows], as we always try to do, but I think it’s a little bit more thematic,” Ellis said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “This project is [about] finding where our sound, hopefully, is headed in a more cemented way … This has more of a theme and a feeling that’s cohesive throughout.”

Formed in 2018, Ellis said the band’s members have been friends since high school. He said over the years, the band’s mindset of having fun with their music hasn’t changed, even as each member grows and changes.

“We’re always just trying to make stuff that we like, that makes us smile when we play,” Ellis said. “Those are all my actual best friends, so we’re just trying to keep it so that everybody’s happy and into it and enjoying themselves.”

Ax and the Hatchetmen have a distinct sound, in part because of the use of horns in many of their songs. On Wednesday night, Ellis on guitar and the band’s trumpeter, Phil Pistone, traded solos during their performance of “Goofy” from their 2020 EP “Bear on the Roof,” much to the audience’s enjoyment.

“We came from that background of jazz and blues and just enjoyed a brass section and wondered how it could fit with an indie rock sound and just kind of rolled with it,” Ellis said. “We could trade solos when we were playing blue songs and an improvisational feel, and so we liked that about it.”

Aside from instrumentation unique in the indie and alt-rock genres, the most-streamed track off their album, “Blurry Lights,” featured Albert Hammond Jr., the guitarist for The Strokes. Ellis said the collaboration came about thanks to a personal connection from their producer, Jake Sinclair. Their performance of the track during their show was met with screams from fans, who nodded their heads and bounced up and down along to the song’s march-like beat.

“We were just over the moon when we listened to [“Blurry Lights”], and I think his additions really, really help make the song what it is now,” Ellis said.

Ellis said the band started working with Sinclair while creating the album. He said Sinclair would bring in his friends to write songs for the album, a creative process that was different from what Ellis was used to.

“It was usually me in my room with a guitar or a couple of the guys, and so to broaden that and see what can be made with other people involved has been really fun and really rewarding for me,” Ellis said.

One first-time Ax and the Hatchetmen concertgoer, Mikaela Lures, said she started listening to the band after seeing Ellis playing one of the main characters in Prime Video’s drama series “The Runarounds.” One of his costars, William Lipton, joined the band onstage for a cover of Neon Trees’ “Everybody Talks.”

“They have a really big stage presence and are just all really great performers,” Lures said. “I expect them to just really get the crowd going, and for there to be a lot of energy in the room today … Their sound is really unique. It’s very fresh, but also very classic.”

A longtime fan of the band, Zachery Krell, said Ax and the Hatchetman has an infectious energy when performing live, making for a better listening experience than just streaming their songs.

“The lead singer has got that growl when he sings, like some of the higher notes, and it’s just cool,” Krell said. “I also like that they have other instruments, like brass and saxophone; some other bands just don’t … It’s like the cherry on top.”

Even after just releasing the band’s debut album, Ellis said he would love Ax and the Hatchetmen to continue releasing more music, whether that looks like singles, more EPs or another album.

“Continuing to put as much love into the music that we can is hopefully what’s going to help us out the most in the long run,” Ellis said. “The one thing you can’t control is reception, and so we try not to really focus on that as much as just enjoying the music ourselves and having a good time.”