Two mismatched offspring of the late great Ali Farka Touré came together in the intimate quarters of the Somerville Theatre under the auspices of Boston’s World Music. Ali’s scion Vieux Farka Touré took the stage first, fronting an enthusiastic five-piece band that gamely pursued his lightning-in-a-bottle riffs with mile-wide grooves. Particularly in light of the posthumous stateside acclaim for Ali’s last album, Savane, Vieux might wonder if he’s the beneficiary of nostalgia-by-proxy. But while he quotes his father’s inimitable licks between songs, his main work is a different beast, perhaps an attempt to refit Ali’s desert blues within a heroic guitar rock paradigm, somewhere between Lobi Traoré’s manic, clattering trajectory and his father’s John Lee Hooker-like gut reliance.
The project is not without risks. One song veered dangerously close to a stodgy power ballad. Others lacked direction, consisting of magnificent grooves chasing their tails while Vieux tore up his fretboard. At the end of his set, Vieux invited the Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth and Amber Coffman on-stage. Longstreth hid bashfully behind his guitar, but Coffman shimmied and shook before busting out a melismatic wail that sounded not at all Malian but somehow fit right in.
Dirty Projectors were the night’s headliners. They borrow from Ali Farka Touré’s chromatic modes for their fidgety, off-kilter riffs, but from that DNA the Projectors build an entirely different beast. Dirty Projectors’ latest album, Bitte Orca, is their most accessible (despite its gnomic title), but the band is driven by an intellectual rigor that is both exhilarating and occasionally exhausting. So they drew us in gently, with just Longstreth and Angel Deradoorian taking the stage for the frigid adoration of “Two Doves,” before the rest of the band showed up.
Dirty Projectors are astonishingly adept performers—it must take a great deal of skill and no small amount of bloody-mindedness to soldier through the dense, discordant harmonies that form the connective tissue for many of their songs. Yet, with the exception of the button-cute Coffman, their charisma is strictly confined to the music. Deradoorian is sphinx-like behind keys, guitar and a Rickenbacker bass as long as she is tall. Longstreth looks jumpy approaching the mic between songs, limiting his patter to a moment of gushing about the honor of playing with Touré.
Nonetheless, Bitte Orca is their most approachable album yet, most of all on the gorgeous single “Stillness Is The Move,” which suggests what might have happened if Beyoncé had sat in with Ali Farka Touré. Coffman ditched her guitar, pulled her mic from its stand and gave us everything she had while the rest of the band worked at the fattest groove in their arsenal. The naked appeal of “Stillness” only exaggerates the cerebral awkwardness of the band, but that too is somehow part of the Projectors’ appeal.
For the grand finale, Vieux’s band joined the Projectors for “No Intention.” Vieux cocked his head while Longstreth modeled the fragmentary, self-contained, Ali-biting riff, then grinned and dug in. Longstreth—chin out, eyes closed—sang, “The renegade feeling satisfied / You blinked and closed your eyes / You like the feeling of Saturday / You love the danger in the night.”
It was a little shambolic to be sure: Vieux’s solo started a little tentative, there was some uncertainty over the alignment of verse and chorus, and Longstreth’s guitar gave out before the end, leaving him waving the band onwards and out. But there was an irresistible exhilaration to the collision between one band’s comfortable grooves and the other’s precisely executed maneuvers.
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Two songs go in, one comes out. Pick a side.
Also, I have yet to pay this venue a visit, is it good spot? good people, good vibe, good atmosphere?
... man, i hope i win some tickets…
by Jaz Bonnin-Aldatz on Thu May 17, 2012 at 12.27 am from the entry: It's all good, see Fishbone for free at Fête
Looking forward to the show. Would love to win some tix for my pals.
by MC Breath on Wed May 16, 2012 at 07.40 pm from the entry: It's all good, see Fishbone for free at Fête
I’m dying to see him no better place than FETE!!
by Telly on Tue May 15, 2012 at 02.57 pm from the entry: we'll see you (and Talib Kweli) at Fête!
Sound does matter. Viva Le Fete!
by Auquanetta on Tue May 15, 2012 at 01.13 pm from the entry: we'll see you (and Talib Kweli) at Fête!
YES! i MUST go to this show! i was just strollin down the street the other day and saw the poster! SO stoked they’ll be in town.
by Jaz on Mon May 14, 2012 at 05.30 pm from the entry: It's all good, see Fishbone for free at Fête
Fete Forever!!
by Tabitha on Mon May 14, 2012 at 05.08 pm from the entry: we'll see you (and Talib Kweli) at Fête!
Congratulations and thank you to Fete for bringing talent to Providence! We needed this venue and vibe. Bless.
oh and I’d love to win tickets; its my boyfriends bday:D
by Ellen on Mon May 14, 2012 at 07.23 am from the entry: we'll see you (and Talib Kweli) at Fête!
