ALBANY — Hundreds of young people will line the sidewalk outside the Washington Avenue Armory Thursday night eager to experience an onslaught of electronic music and a drenching of paint.

Billed as the world's largest paint party, Dayglow comes to the armory for the second time — it attracted a capacity crowd of 4,500 last September — and exemplifies the trendy, in-your-face kind of show that has been drawing crowds of teenagers and young adults to the castle-like structure at Washington Avenue and Lark Street.

Delaney McDonough, 17, a student at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High School, attended a recent show there — her first at the armory. She carpooled with friends and had such a good time she looks forward to going back.

"It was fun, wild, crowded and loud," she said. "My ears rang for at least an hour afterward."

If Dayglow with its DJs, aerial and contortion acts, fire shows and cannons that blast the audience with paint doesn't strike your fancy, then how about the recent Stuff Your Face with Bass concerts or the Masque Rave that's scheduled later this month?

"Bring your own mask," the promotional poster reads, "then rage & roll all night."

The rave has become the rage at the cavernous building, constructed in 1890 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's owned by Ben Fernandez, a New York City businessman who owned the Albany Patroons, a professional basketball team that played at the armory in the 1980s and again from 2005 to 2009 (after Fernandez bought the armory in 2004 from the state and renovated it).

A rave is a dance party powered by pounding electronic music, smoke machines and laser-light shows. In the past year the armory's managers have focused on renting the facility to promoters of those types of shows. Young people have responded by lining up to get in — sometimes for a couple of blocks — prompting double takes from motorists.

"We've been successful," said Bill O'Brien, one of the managers. "And that's the course we plan on keeping."

At the same time, he said, the armory offers a variety of shows several times a month, from mixed-martial-arts boxing to Albany All Stars Roller Derby to a concert by the actor Gary Sinise. On April 28, Sinise's Lt. Dan Band — named after his character in the movie "Forrest Gump" — will play to raise money to build a home for a local disabled veteran and his family.

By booking performers such as the American rapper Rick Ross and the French DJ and music producer David Guetta, the armory has filled an entertainment niche in the Capital Region, accommodating crowds too large for Northern Lights and the Palace Theatre but not large enough for the Times Union Center.

"We negotiate with all promoters and try to select what we feel are the best shows," O'Brien said. "If Judy Collins called, we would certainly entertain it. We're currently negotiating for a play to come in here, an actual theater play."

But electronic music is the armory's bread and butter. Ted Etoll of Step Up Presents, the leading local concert promoter, frequently books shows there.

"It's got capacity; that's what it's got," he said. "It's got the space to handle a show where you're going to get 2,000 people or more.

"I see it as a very youth-driven facility. Adult shows don't do great there because there's no parking lot attached to it, and people have this silly fear of what it's like in downtown Albany. Kids don't care where they go to see a show."

Despite the crowds, Officer Steven A. Smith of the Albany Police Department said the shows have not generated significant problems. And Mary Spinelli, executive director of the Lark Street Business Improvement District, and Kenny Schachter, co-owner of The City Beer Hall, said the crowds have helped downtown businesses.

"With the growth of electronic music in the last couple of years, the artists are now getting so big in the genre that they need a bigger space," Schachter said. "And there are so many students and such a big population here that want music.

"So naturally all the businesses in the area are getting populated by the before-and-after crowd. I've noticed that at our bar and Savannah's and Jillian's, places like that, after-parties are starting to emerge, which is excellent. I love to see all the local businesses getting a pick up from it."

Olivia Hatalsky, a senior at Sharon Springs Central School, attended a recent Stuff Your Face with Bass show with her boyfriend. She had not been to the armory but decided, she said, to give "this whole dubstep/dance party/rave experience a shot."

Her parents drove them to the show and then went shopping, she said. She and her boyfriend had a blast.

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"At the door they split up guys and girls into two rows, and you got a bit of a pat down because raves are notorious for drug use," Olivia said. "That gives them a bad and undeserved reputation, because if you don't seek it out when you're there, you don't see it.

"There were three rooms with DJs, but we stayed by the stage in the main room. Everyone was jumping, hands in the air. It was such a unique experience, because everyone was so in-sync with the beat and all moving as a crowd."

Now she plans on attending Masque Rave.

"Everyone wears masks," she said. "It sounds like a great, insanely fun time."

tkeyser@timesunion.com • 518-454-5448