On Saturday, July 14, the Orange Show invited guests to relax amid the monument's citrusy wackiness and soak up the benga indie rock stylings of Extra Golden. This performance was the latest in the Orange Show's excellent series spotlighting musical performers from an array of backgrounds.

Review, photos, and video after the jump

I arrived while DJ SUN was dispatching downtempo strains from one of the Orange Show's several raised viewing areas. Examining my surroundings, I noticed that the monument was not nearly so bursting with patrons as it had been at the last show I'd attended there. I suspect that the show wasn't very heavily advertised - we didn't receive word until a week before - which likely affected attendance. The result was a less-dense, but congruently enthusiastic audience awaiting the arrival of Nairobi-based Extra Golden.

The promo photo I'd received as part of Extra Golden's press package depicted only four men, but seven were on stage in the fish pond that night. The audience learned later that the conga player was a Golden friend from Austin. As for the other two, I'm still not sure. Extra Golden's Myspace page lists six living members (co-founder Otieno Jagwasi lost his battle with liver disease a year after they recorded their debut, Ok-Oyot System), so perhaps the two additional players are regular members who weren't present the day the photo was taken. And they haven't been able to take another picture since. Anyway, moving on...

Extra Golden's American rock and Kenyan benga influences are vibrantly noticeable in their studio material, and I wasn't surprised to find that their tropical blend was just as refreshing in a live setting. Their exotic yet accessible sound is warm and inviting, and it's clear that some musical ancestry is shared with sooo-two-months-ago blog band Vampire Weekend. But before you go attacking me for saying that Extra Golden and Vampire Weekend were born of the same musical loins, let me clarify: the music of both bands employs Afro-pop elements, but the end products are not altogether similar. Besides, Extra Golden win the More Authentically African battle by delivering the majority of the vocals in a language that I don't understand. They totally kick VW's 'kwassa' in that category. Anyway, moving on...

The band's setlist included Hera Ma Nono's "Obama," their aptly titled tribute to Barack Obama, whose office helped them procure the visas they needed to tour in the US. Also included were "Osama Rach" from Ok-Oyot System and several other tunes with indecipherable (at least to me) names. I even tried poring over all the online material I could find to try to match up remembered syllables with song titles. No dice.

The band and show were well received by the Orange Show audience - several fans even planted themselves in front of the fish pond (or whatever it is. That's what we always call it), grooving and flailing away. The venue is many things, but dance-friendly it is not. Most attendees stay perched in their seats, an environment that a timid soul like me would never soberly descend upon in dancing shoes. So here's a hearty "Right on!" from me - may you always have the balls that I don't.

Cereal's rating: For their rejuvenating Kenyan-American concoction, I give Extra Golden 7.890728/10 bowls.

For its always-surreal-in-the-best-way-possible atmosphere, I give the Orange Show 9.1206/10 bowls.

Extra Golden have tour dates scheduled in the US and Europe through mid-August. More information at their Myspace page.

The next musical event slated to take place at the Orange Show will feature Xiu Xiu along with current Eggs musician crush Thao Nguyen and her band the Get Down Stay Down. This is a reschedule of the show that was supposed to take place in April but had to be cancelled due to rain. Tickets are $10, and I'd suggest buying them in advance because it will almost definitely sell out.

More photos are available on our Flickr account, and there are also a few more videos on our YouTube channel.

Carpe ientaculum.

--Cereal