desert blues

I saw Tinariwen tonight!! I've mentioned them before - they're the leading Tuareg desert blues band. (A competitive category, I'm sure.) They were totally awesome. The show was in the same theater where we do the Christmas show, but was considerably funkier and had way more guys in turbans. Tuaregs seriously wrap up - on many of them you could only see the eyes and nose. A few let their mouths show. This is practical in the Sahara, less so on stage, but it looks cool. They had one dude playing a drum and four other guys playing various guitars. It. Was. Awesome. I'd recommend seeing them, but I don't know that they're going to be near any of you loyal readers this month.

Ali Farka Touré's son, Vieux Farka Touré, opened. He was good - his style is a bit like his dad's. He doesn't really speak English...he'd get partway through a sentence between songs, then give up and finish in French. I think a pretty large percentage of the audience understood him. He spoke too fast and West-African-y for me - the Tuareg guys were easier to understand. Like the one, actually a random audience member, who got up at the end and told us that we, or those of us who speak French, should support our Tuareg brothers in their rebellion in Niger. Well, I don't know where I stand on the politics, but the music sure was good!