Aside from being death-inducingly hot, the double-room setup made the night extra awkward: The Echo decided that night that they would extend Dub Club to both the upstairs and the downstairs rooms. Does that mean Extra Golden is reggae or something? Fine. It also meant that we had to walk down those piss-scented concrete stairs (now featuring huge graffiti next to stairs reading GENTRIFIED) to the Echoplex’s Glendale entrance. As far as I’m concerned, Extra Golden could have played “Ilando Gima Onge” and left and it still would have ruled. “Ilando Gima Onge” is dark in a way that Baobab’s “Tante Maria” is: kind of a Spanish minor chord progression and distant reverb-soaked guitars. But “Ilando” is possibly better in that it raises Baobab’s soft-spoken ballad bet by adding worlds more energy and syncopation. Aside from that (and the intense giant sign behind them that read EXTRA GOLDEN—THE ROCKERS AND THE FIXERS—LIVE ON STAGE—YAH OK-OYOT-SYSTEM) the most culturally significant event of the night was when they played “Obama,” which, aside from being the best song off Hera Ma Nono, should be made our national anthem on January 20th 2009.

– Kevin Ferguson