Little Dragon – Il Motore – 18.01.11
First up were psychedelic Portland band, Billygoat. A weird projection was frozen on a screen set up on the left of the stage and an eclectic array of instruments were lying all over the place to start the set. It was hard to form any expectations judging by what was in front of me, but like so many other “performance art” type of shows, this could have turned into a disaster. But it wasn’t. Billygoat happened to be an incredible discovery for any musicians or creative people out there. Amazing animations were projected on a screen as the three members played music that was perfectly synchronized to the images in the background. The animations were astonishingly clever and well crafted and It was a delight to discover such an ingenious opening act.
As Billygoat’s set up was torn down, you could feel the excitement buzzing in the room. Little Dragon had gathered quite an audience on this Tuesday night. Starting eagerly with the first track off of their latest album, Machine Dreams, singer Yukimi Nagano seemed to get in a sort of trance. Her inarticulate and static dance moves did, however, match perfectly with the electronic and synthpop quality of the band’s music. They rapidly announced that they had finished working on their third album and we had the pleasure, right at the beginning of the set, to hear one of their new song called “Little Man”. If the rest of the album is as good as this short preview, we have something to be excited about. Afterward, they went back to their first album with the song “After the Rain” and Nagano transformed again, from her charming character to a controlled and hypnotic performer. Sometimes it worked perfectly well with the overall ambiance of the show, but sometimes it also fell a bit flat. They elongated their songs a lot, which is often expected during live performances, but on occasion it felt too long and forced. People really got into it when they played “My Step” and dancing overtook the venue. They ended the show with the upbeat “Runabout” and slowly left the stage, one after the other. Soon enough, they were back for an encore which they finished with the calm and beautiful piece “Twice”. Overall, the show was charming and what we were expecting from the Swedish band but perhaps too much so.
–Camille Gervais
Little Dragon
billygoat
Photography by Eli Larin
