I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: July 19, 2023] Mdou Moctar 

Mdou Moctar is one of four Tuareg musicians who I have wanted to see perform.  The others are Tinariwen, Imarhan and Bombino.

I have heard that Mdou Moctar puts on an amazing show so I pretty psyched to see him and his band at Ardmore Music Hall.

When I got to the Hall, it was pretty crowded, but I was able to get right up by the stage which was a great way to watch Mdou play (and smile).

Unfortunately, I was right in front of bassist Mikey Coltun.  I say unfortunately only because it meant the bass was too loud.  And in fact, when the show started it was WAY too loud.  It got turned down slowly over the next two or three songs, but honestly, we were all there to hear guitar, not bass. Now, the bass is absolutely essential to Mdou’s songs–the bass keeps the whole thing together, with a great pulsing rhythm and a cool melody as well.  But on record it sits there at the back guiding things along.  In this setting it was taking front and center.

This meant that I almost couldn’t hear Ahmoudou Madassane, who’s been Moctar’s rhythm guitarist since 2008.  It was only when things were quieter that Madassane’s guitar was audible to me.

But that’s also because drummer Souleymane Ibrahim was a freaking maniac!  He was so much fun to watch, playing incredibly fast fills seemingly out of nowhere and then settling back down to keep the beat steady.  Madassane and Ibrahim were both wearing traditional turbans that covered most of their face (Ibrahim took his off by the end).  Coltun and Moctar had their loosely draped around their necks.

In the middle of the stage was Mdou Moctar, much taller than I realized in a lengthy pink djellaba and pants.  In fact, all four of them wore pink djellaba, but each one had a different pattern or stitching on it.  Moctar plays lefty, without using a pick.

I don’t know how many songs they played.  Each one was around six or seven minutes long with a slow introduction, gentle vocals from Moctar (with backing from Madassane) and then he would step back and begin soloing.  At some point the pace would pick up and he would solo more frenetically.

Occasionally he encouraged us to clap along, but he never spoke.

His guitar playing was amazing to watch.  His hands are quite large and he cover a huge area of the fretboard.  He also doesn’t use a pick so the sounds he makes are a little different than traditional guitar soloing.  I also love that he uses his left hand to press on and tweak the strings down by the pickup, making all kinds of extra interesting sounds.

It was pretty hot in there (poor Ibrahim was desperately trying to get his box fan to blow on him properly) but I also knew that he sets typically aren’t very long.

They played for a little over an hour.  I recognized a couple of songs like “Afrique Victime,” but mostly is was just grooving jamming Taureg rock.

It was fantastic.