I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: July 10, 2024] Mdou Moctar 

Mdou Moctar had just played Union Transfer on June 28.  A week later, he announced two intimate acoustic shows and one of them was back in Philly, practically across the street in PhilaMOCA.

I didn’t go to last week’s show but I didn’t want to miss this one:

New York and Philly! We’re doing a couple of intimate last minute acoustic(ish) unplugged shows. We can’t wait to see you! Grab tickets before they sell out! See you soon!

It was funny to have Emily Robb open for this set because she was so loud.  The show was billed as acoustic and I almost didn’t bring earplugs (which we definitely needed for Emily Robb).  Emily said that she had opened for Mdou on a previous tour and I can see when Mdou was on fire that Emily was appropriate.

But indeed I didn’t need them for Mdou’s set.

The setup was like when I saw him last year.  Bassist Mikey Coltun was on the far side.  Last time I was right in front of him which was unfortunate because the bass was too loud. But I enjoyed his bass quite a lot.  And I enjoyed it this time as well, although I was on the other side from him.  In fact I could barely see him for most of the night–PhilaMOCA was packed!

This time, I was in front of Ahmoudou Madassane, who’s been Moctar’s rhythm guitarist since 2008.  I didn’t really get much of his sound last time, so it was cool to see how much he contributed to the set.

Last time I was blown away by drummer Souleymane Ibrahim.  He was restrained somewhat because he only had a bass drum and a hand drum (bongo?).  And yet he was incredible with that too–directing the pace as it gained tempo and intensity.

All four of them were seated (which brought a very different vibe than the last time I saw them) and Mdou had a left-handed hollow bodied guitar.

The last time I saw them, the songs were six or seven minutes long with a slow, quiet introduction, verses and then wild soloing.  Mdou didn’t have quiet as much soloing this time.  Which makes sense since it was an acoustic[ish] evening.

He played about 8 songs in roughly an hour and then came back for an encore.

All of the songs were great, with Mdou singing passionately–as if the quieter setting made his lyrics more clear.

The crowd was really into it (some a little too much), but the whooping and high pitched shrieking seemed to please the band (as much as it irritated the audience) and people started clapping which definitely pleased Mdou.  And on two occasions the band encouraged us to clapm which we all enjoyed doing.

In even this quiet setting, his guitar playing was fun to watch.  But it was a very different vibe than last time.  This felt like we were hanging out in a cafe with Mdou and his friends playing their songs.

Here’s a clip from the show

And Markit AnEight has the complete show (someday I’ll meet this mysterious filmer who goes to many of the same shows as me).