Kevin Bronson on August 1st, 2012

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The Little Tokyo-adjacent setting for the Play MOCA series proved perfect on Friday night for L.A. rockers IO Echo. The brainchild of Ioanna Gika and Leopold Ross, the quintet brought their dark, dreamy, Far East-influenced sound to a stage erected in the plaza of the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

It was the first of three nights of a multimedia series presented by IAMSOUND Records, the cosmetics company Smashbox and the downtown museum. The series continues Aug. 17 with Zola Jesus and Active Child performing and winds up Aug. 24 with Cults and Lord Huron. And like many events of its kind, there was as much for the eyes as the ears.

IO Echo’s aesthetic has been described as “New Orientalism,” and as they performed in front of appropriately themed projections you could almost forget that you were steps away from a parking lot. The fivesome played material from its forthcoming self-titled EP – the band announced this week that, in a change of plans from June’s album announcement, it instead would release an EP on Oct. 16. The release date for the full-length “Ministry of Love” has been pushed back to 2013.

IO Echo was followed by Salem, doing whatever it is that Salem does.

The evening’s early arrivals enjoyed DJ sets, projections, reasonably priced drinks, touch-ups at Smashbox booths and a trip through the museum (where we snapped a couple of photos before being asked not to snap photos) for a look at the exhibitions “Ends of the Earth” (we’re still trying to get our brain around Land art, but that’s the whole point of partaking, right?) and Cai Guo-Qiang’s remarkable solo display “Sky Ladder.”

||| Live: Play MOCA continues Aug. 17 and 24. While it is a free event, tickets need to be reserved through Brown Paper Tickets. MOCA members will be eligible to reserve tickets for the next show beginning Friday, with general-admission tickets available the following week.