adidas Originals | We Are Awesome | Little Dragon

Get excited! adidas Originals Live Performances Part 2 sees Little Dragon in SA at the end of August.

Wanting to do something about the international live music options we have in South Africa, We-Are-Awesome launched an events division and joined up with adidas Originals to start All Originals Live Performances. In April they brought us Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and this time around it’s Swedish electro-soul foursome, Little Dragon.

Tour dates for South Africa:

Cape Town:
Date: 31 August
Venue: The Old Biscuit Mill
375 Albert Road
Woodstock

Facebook Event Page

Johannesburg:
Date: 1st September
Venue: MOAD
281 Commissioner Street
Maboneng Precinct

Facebook Event Page

Tickets
Early Bird – R200
Pre Sale – R250
General Admission – R300

Tickets available from Webtickets.

Pictures from part 1.

we-are-awesome.com/events/

About the band:

Close friends since high school, Yukimi Nagano, Fredrik Wallin, Håkan Wirenstrand and Erik Bodin have been making music together for most of their lives. In the years since, many industry heavies have recognized the fire. They’ve earned fans in Gorillaz (whose 2010 LP Plastic Beach includes two songs written and performed with Little Dragon), Raphael Saadiq (who invited Nagano to sing on his new Stone Rollin’ album), Erykah Badu (who calls the band “one of my favorites”), DJ Shadow and US heavyweight Big Boi. And it seems that the rest of the world is starting to catch on to what tastemakers have known for years.

Little Dragon built their name the old-fashioned way: slowly and through word of mouth. They all began making music together as friends in high school. “Our way of spending time together was listening to, or playing music,” Yukimi recalls of those days in the 1990s.

After moving in together at a Gothenburg art collective where they record all their albums, the group took the name Little Dragon—a reference to Yukimi’s fiery countenance during recording sessions.

The impact of Little Dragon’s first release, of which only 1,000 copies were pressed, was felt immediately in England, where it became an underground classic and Rough Trade “single of the week.” Thereafter Little Dragon produced their self-titled debut that offered a distinctive and wondrous visual aesthetic to go with its unique, enchanting sound.

Little Dragon’s second album, Machine Dreams, a more up-tempo set with ‘80s influences like Prince and Depeche Mode working their way into the mix, followed in 2009. Little Dragon went on to do collaborations with Gorillaz and the solo project of Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio.

Little Dragon kicked off 2011 with a headlining tour of the U.S. and a performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in March. Big Boi and DJ Shadow called to invite the group to work on new music. And in July they released Ritual Union, an album that finds futuristic, trance-like rhythms mixed with the soulful vibes of their debut LP plus upfront and danceable sounds of Machine Dreams.

While their recordings are always impressive, it is in the live setting where the Dragon really comes alive. Nearly as striking is the culturally diverse crowd that somehow turns up in every city to see them. “I think that’s kind of ideal,” Yukimi says of Little Dragon’s eclectic fan base. “That’s how, if I wished for a crowd, I would want it.” And no doubt, if that crowd could invent a band, Little Dragon is what they’d come up with.

Tags: adidas Originals Live Performances Part 2 Little Dragon We Are Awesome Events