It just so happened that I was in London last week. London was cold, London was damp, and London certainly did not feel like mid-July in 2008 - i.e. where were the effects of global warming when you really needed them? Thankfully, Extra Golden parked their traveling sound system at the dead center of the goths, punks, gypsy merchants, and other sunlight-averse folks huddled throughout Camden’s marketplace and went to work transforming the soggy environs of Dingwalls into a sweating Nairobi nightclub on Thursday.
Legend has it - or I suppose it’s fact at this point seeing as I spoke to Extra Golden founder Ian Eagleson about this recently - that the band recorded their excellent 2006 debut Ok-Oyot System in a single afternoon in an empty nightclub of the same name. Truly a testament to both their prowess as musicians and the rock epithet espoused by everyone from Jon Brion to cash-strapped Bengan musicians that the first take is ALWAYS the best, Extra Golden glided through a mesmerizing set that refused to be even momentarily slowed down by a series of technical problems (Eagleson’s amp blew it’s speaker on the first song) and proved just how they were able to accomplish such an impressive feat in creating their first album.
The show was a mix of material from Ok-Oyot and their latest album Hera Ma Nono and reflected their agile mix of Western rock with more traditional Benga music, swapping and stacking culturally-specific lyrics (some in Kenyan, others in English) along with stuttering guitar lines and polyrhythms at a breakneck pace.
And with a simple sign hand-lettered on a bedsheet that read “Extra Golden - The Rockers and The Fixers - LIVE ON STAGE - Oh-Ok-Oyot System” as their backdrop, they gleefully channeled the simplicity and do-it-yourself aesthetic that has defined their own journey as a band so far and made at least one cold American feel warm all over.
See Extra Golden Live:
17 July - Chicago, IL @ Millenium Park
18 July - Madison, WI @ Der Rathskeller with Icy Demons
19 July - Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
20 July - Detroit, MI @ Concert of Colors
21 July - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop with !!! and Icy Demons
22 July - Pittsburgh, PA @ Rex Theatre with !!! and Icy Demons
23 July - Detroit Lakes, MN @ 10,000 Lakes Festival
24 July - Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
25 July - Newport, KY @ Southgate House
26 July - Louisville, KY @ Forecastle Festival
27 July - Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center For the Arts
28 July - Alexandria, VA @ Birchmere
29 July - New York, NY @ Knitting Factory with Icy Demons
30 July - Boston, MA @ Museum of Fine Arts
31 July - Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse Music Hall
03 Aug - Brooklyn, NY @ Celebrate Brooklyn! Performing Arts Festival
20 Aug - New York, NY @ Lincoln Center Out of Doors
*photos by Tamsyn ten Krooden
**above slideshow created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Visit Extra Golden on MySpace.
