A daily chronicle of creativity in film, TV, music, arts, and entertainment, produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from November 2014 – March 2020. Host John Horn leads the conversation, accompanied by the nation's most plugged-in cultural journalists.
The Swedish electro-indie band Little Dragon wasn't always headlining 5,000-seat amphitheaters. Before the band's fan base grew, they were playing to crowds of less than 20 people.
Little Dragon: Crystalfilm video
Lead singer Yukimi Nagano remembers the first bad show Little Dragon ever played:
One of the ones that ended up good was a show in Dublin where it was in a pub. We got backstage and there was cold pasta salad, which was all gross looking, and then we went on stage and there were 10 people in the crowd and a lot of empty space. We were definitely bummed out.
We just kind of got into it and decided that we were gonna do our best and play for each other because there's no one here anyway. Actually, it ended up being a really special show because we let go.
So even though we were funky, we let everything out and the 10 people who were there all bought a record. So you could say a hundred percent of the audience bought an album, which is not that bad.
The band is set to play the Greek Theatre this weekend, which has a seating capacity of 5,870.