Little Dragon

While I would much prefer to be seeing Little Dragon at one of the more dive-y venue establishments Los Angeles has to offer, there comes a point where every music fan has to accept that the precious indie band they’ve held in their pocket for so long just isn’t going to play the Echo ever again. Sigh. Be that as it may, the members of Little Dragon have at least worked their collective asses off to work their way up to bigger stages and have paid their dues on those aforementioned seedy club stages playing to disinterested hipsters – truly, a worthy trial for any band to weather these days. Also commendable is the fact that the band has earned its way to big venues via word of mouth from that extensive touring, rather than by any concerted media effort to make them a “Next Big Thing” or whatever. Frontwoman Yukimi Nagano’s ethereal crooning brings to life the dreamy pop instrumentation of her band mates and can be as catchy as it is haunting. Given that the band’s latest work is some of its best yet, maybe we can let the bigger venue thing slide. - Brien Overly