Dana and Alden: Papa's Boat Tour at the Echoplex

Dana and Alden are bringing their Papa's Boat Tour to the Echoplex, and it's one of the more interesting concerts in Los Angeles on the calendar right now if your taste runs toward jazz that doesn't sit still. The duo writes tunes that start in jazz and then wander off into neo-soul grooves and house-music pulse. Expect a band that plays like it grew up on records, not in a conservatory practice room.

Who they are

It's a two-person project built around saxophone, keys and drums. Dana handles sax and keyboards. Alden plays drums. Their own bio has a nice detail in it: at one point Alden was studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston while Dana was working as an organic farm inspector in Eugene, Oregon. That split between the city school and the Pacific Northwest farm country shows up in the music, which is technical without feeling fussy.

Papa's Boat is their newest album, and the tour takes its name from it. The duo has described the record as tied to their earliest memories and their furthest travels. The promo shot says plenty about the mood: two guys in wool sweaters and rubber boots, bobbing in a cheap orange raft on flat gray water. It's a little absurd and very sincere, which is a fair summary of a lot of good small-club jazz.

The room

The Echoplex sits underneath The Echo in Echo Park, and it's the bigger of the two rooms. It's a standing-room club with a wide floor, a good sound system and a reputation for booking acts right before they outgrow it. For a sax-and-drums band, that matters. You'll hear the kick drum in your chest and the horn right up front, not smeared across an arena.

Before you go

The Ticketmaster listing is dated Friday, September 25, 2026, with a 7pm start, while our event feed logged the show as September 26. Go by the date and door time printed on your ticket, and double-check the listing before you head out.

• Venue: Echoplex, Echo Park
• Tickets: Ticketmaster (link on this page)
• Price: not listed in our source data, so check Ticketmaster for current prices and fees

Parking around Echo Park gets tight on show nights, so rideshare or arriving early is the easier move. If you're mapping out LA concerts for the rest of the fall, browse the concerts category or everything we've found across Los Angeles. The tour keeps moving after LA, with dates in places like Columbus, Ohio, in October, so this is the one to catch if you're local.