Tinariwen show review 3/25/14
by Ben Brondsky, Fleshy Fresh DJ
Some people, mostly uncultured ignorant music-listeners, get turned off by music that isn’t in English. They think that because they can’t understand the lyrics that they have no mean, that they won’t be able to connect to the music, that liking music from other countries, i.e. in the World genre is weird. Well those people are dumb and just plain missing out. I’ve now seen the band Tinariwen live multiple times and own all of their CDs and if you like bluesy rock n roll there’s no reason you wouldn’t like these guys.
They came to the Paradise Rock Club on March 25th and played to a mostly sold out crowd. Hailing all the way from northern Mali, Tinariwen has a revolving cast of men and women in their band all of the Tuareg people. The Tuaregs are a group of nomadic people who live all around northern Africa in countries such as Mali, Algeria, and Niger. Tinawariwen originally formed in the early 1970s when members were living in exile from Mali. The group gained world attention in 2001 with the release of their album The Radio Tisdas Sessions and since then has released five other albums and won a Grammy in 2011. Famous fans range from Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, and Bono to Chris Martin of Coldplay, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, and Henry Rollins of Black Flag. Basically they’re an awesome band that you’re probably missing out on.
At the Paradise there were six members in total: a percussionist, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, and then three members would rotate lead vocals and lead guitar. While one of the three members would sing and play the guitar, the other two would do the back up vocals. After a couple of songs they would switch so all three had a few songs of their own to be the leader on. The majority of the Tinariwen’s lyrics revolve around war and the Tuareg lifestyle. The music style that most Americans would hear in Tinariwen’s sound is the blues. The music is very guitar-driven and each song usually has small staccato solos within the structure and with both the lyrics and guitar playing you hear the blues as an influence.
Tinariwen and their rhythmic playing entranced the crowd. Tinariwen utilized a lot of handclapping and the crowd complied and continuously did while also dancing a ton. No one would ever say the members of Tinariwen have the prettiest voices but that’s not what their band is about, their harmonies and call and responses are crisp and their musicianship is filled with raw, real talent. When you see Tinariwen you know that these guys can play and weren’t influenced by anyone but themselves.
My favorite part of the concert was the first encore song. One guitarist came out and played an acoustic guitar while singing and then a second guitarist came out and played very bluesy electric guitar behind him, then the percussionist came out, then the bassist, etc. until the whole band came out and each person added their instrument and voice to the song to make a symphony of sound. This one song last a good 8-9 minutes and was Tinariwen’s longest song. Overall they played for over an hour and a half and kept the crowd energized and pumped up the entire time. If Tinariwen comes to your town I highly recommend you go and see them. It’ll be better than most cookie cutter music out in the U.S. right now.
