Last week, I got to see one of those famed Los Angeles shows where top-to-bottom it was stacked with up-and-coming talent. The show Wednesday night at The Echo was topped by rising electropop duo DRAMA, and featured promising pop talents Claire George and Disco Shrine, both LA residents.
DRAMA is in that AlunaGeorge genre where they straddle the line between electronic music and pop and R&B perfectly. Vocalist Via Rosa came on stage with a light-up crown, as well as an immeasurable amount of swag.
The duo wowed me with their catchy and heartbreaking songwriting. “Safe House” was an early-set earworm, and the chorus from “Low Tide” is stuck in my head a week later. Some of the songs had a Tom Misch kind of jazzy feel to them. One of the crowd favorites of the night was the duo’s take on Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home”.
Multi-instrumentalist Na’el Shehade held it down while Rosa flexed her vocals, as well as her cheeky between-song banter. She talked of one song being about falling in love with a Tinder date.
Also featured on the show was rising pop singer-songwriter-producer Claire George, who I had the chance to interview a few weeks before the show. She came out in this interesting outfit that had a collar and a cape, and had one of my friends mentioning she was giving her Khaleesi vibes. “Orbits” was the standout of the set to me, and she was even able to get an LA crowd to be respectful for one of the quieter tunes.
Local favorite Disco Shrine opened the show with a lot of energy, with last year’s standout single “Up in the Air” being the crowd favorite.
It’s always a great night when every act on a bill brings something unique to the table and can keep a crowd’s attention. These three acts brought that and more.
Words by Mark Ortega
Photos by Tim Aarons
DRAMA:
CLAIRE GEORGE:
DISCO SHRINE:
