It’s a close contest between Super Bowl XXV and Super Bowl XLII. I remember lying in my parents bed seventeen years ago watching Scott Norwood’s kick sail wide, and I don’t know if it could compare to watching Eli Manning miraculously lead his offense downfield to a game-winning touchdown. Absolutely incredible.
Last night Ilya and I ducked in Echo Curio to watch La Otracina melt faces for about 45 or 50 minutes. Their set commenced with a two-guitar squall set against what could only be described as a free-jazz drum exhibition. It was haphazard, but almost instantaneously the band switched gears and launched into a classic, unrelenting space rock groove. After waiting several minutes for it to kick in, I quickly realized why I fell so deeply in love with the band’s Tonal Ellipse Of The One (ranked the #3 album of 2007, read my original review of the album here). Back then, I wrote about the album: “La Otracina intend to envelop the listener in massive swaths of sound…Free, loose space-rock complete with dive-bombing synthesizer tone bends and monumental feedback swells. The musicians are masters of restraint, and for the sundry noises which make up these tracks, it never sounds like overkill…A nod to all things free; totally blissed-out, bending and weaving, dynamic celestial jamming.” They sounded like an instrumental mash-up of Sabbath and Hawkwind. So fucking good.
And now, we have less than two weeks until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. As I wave goodbye to football season, there is absolutely no sadness in the gesture. It is pure excitement as I prepare for a grueling baseball season. I cannot wait for Opening Day. But more on that as March 31st (versus the Marlins, in Miami) approaches…
