Little Dragon at Vicar Street, Dublin, 25^th November 2014

The first time Little Dragon played a concert in Dublin there were a little over twenty people in the audience. Halfway through their set in Vicar Street, singer Yukimi Nagano makes reference to these early days while absorbing the energy of a much larger crowd.

‘Nabuma Rubberband,’ the band’s most recent album, is probably their most polished to date. Every song is a banger, inviting you to dance along. Originally known for playing trip-hop infused, low-key love songs, ‘Nabuma Rubberband’ seems almost like a signal of intent for a band whose fame has grown immensely in the past year.

Little Dragon are such an energetic, creative band that it’s hard to imagine them struggling in obscurity. Every part of their set, from the acoustics to the stage-lighting, is geared towards giving the audience something to remember, coming together to create a euphoric club-like setting.

They kick off with Please Turn which is pretty explosive by anybody’s standards. What is more surprising is when they decide to ramp the atmosphere up a little with Nagano greeting the crowd to general excitement, before moving into After the Rain.

From then on there’s a buzz in the crowd which never ceases. Each band member looks genuinely delighted to be playing to a packed crowd, gesticulating to their fans and communicating across the stage, with Keyboardist Hakan Wirenstrand even running over to Drummer Erik Bodin’s station to play the bongos at one point.

The atmosphere changes so much throughout the night. At one point, as the strobe light flashes red streaks around Vicar Street, it feels like a scene from Apocalypse Now. This illusion is dispersed pretty soon though as a quick drum comes in, clearing away this mood to make way for the feet to dance.

There are so many times when Little Dragon veer off into an instrumental rhythm, repeating itself over and over. The crowd don’t just put up with these interludes though. There is the sense that something is going to come before the band move into a new song, and they never disappoint, reaching very high heights each time they try and filling every corner of Vicar Street with sound.

As their set comes to a close the band make their way off-stage one by one. Nagano is the first to go as she leaves the other three to jam away. By the time Hakan Wirenstrand makes his departure, a lot of the atmosphere is sucked out of the room. A good time, then, to finish. The crowd waits patiently for them to return, which they duly do, before they move into Little Man.

Contradictory to what went before, the final song of the night, Always on the Run, is quite subdued. It’s obvious the high is beginning to wear off, but, we’re allowed one last song to bring with us into the night and, thankfully, it’s the kind of song you can sing under your breath on the walk home.

Whether this concert is the finale to a success story is very arguable. Sure Little Dragon have made it, but there’s so much scope for the band to continue growing in the next few years that it’s ludicrous to put a cap on their career at this point.