BrightestYoungThings: Live DC: Vieux Farka Toure/ Elikeh/ Farafina Kan @ RNR Hotel

All Words by Salvatore Colleluori
Photos from Vieux Farka Toure's Myspace and Farafinakan.com

When I first found out Vieux Farka Toure was coming to DC, I was pretty confused why he was going to the Rock and Roll Hotel. Given that the previous two days were a Bacardi Special with Matt and Kim and Major Lazer and Phoenix respectively, day 3 isn't usually a world music superstar. However, after seeing his live show, Vieux fits the true bill of the Rock and Roll Hotel more than any of the other two. More to come on that but let's start from the beginning.

I arrived at the club a little early and was treated to a street show. Members of the bands were all outside singing and dancing with little children and all chatting. It seemed like a reunion of a family, people who loved and cared for each other, and shared this mutual bond in music. There were many elegantly dressed women and men who were walking in and out of the club to partake in the festivities.

Starting about a half hour late (on purpose), Farafina Kan stepped on stage. Farafina Kan is a local Djembe group that combines singing, dancing, and of course, drumming. Djembes are West African hand drums which range in size and tone. From their music you truly find the roots of the blues. The singers would have these long, chanted call and response sections which was totally in balance with the drummers. Every bone in my body wanted to move and dance, but I tried to keep my composure for the sake of this review. Towards the middle of the set, one drummer came out and played a traditional West African piece on the Cora or Kora, which is a 21 stringed instrument similar to sitar. During the song, the player explained that he did not just like traditional music and began to sing "Ain't no Sunshine" by Bill Withers, which really fused the two cultures together. Their last song, and probably best, was a party piece called Fe. At that point these two little kids, no older than 10 stepped out on stage and began to drum with the troupe. I lost my mind. These kids were the most amazing drummers I have ever seen and THEY WERE SO YOUNG! They finally finished the piece to great applause and made way for the next group. Please if you can youtube/download/find these guys and see them. It's totally worth your time.

After an unfortunately short set by Farafina Kan, Elikeh came on stage. Elikeh was more reggae based but heavily relied on African rhythms with jazz influences. It was a very interesting blend of cultures. While Farafina Kan was more authentic, these guys really had a good combination of a lot of elements. I was not particularly thrilled with their stuff only because they seemed too forced. It could have been the presence of the many important Malian musicians in the audience. (I tried 4 times to listen to the guys name (a Grammy nominated musician), even asking someone at one point, and I still didn't get it so, sorry readers). Elikeh's songs focused around themes of West African oppression and for one song, they had the whole crowd singing along with them "Let's join hands together; let's march!"

After another short intermission, Vieux and his band came out on stage. Compared to the other two groups which had, at points, 10 musicians on stage, Vieux had 4 others accompanying him. Do not take the lack of musicians to mean there was a lack of sound. With a percussionist and drummer in tow, there was not a moment of space that was not filled with intricate rhythms. For this portion of the show I managed to work my way to the very front of the stage. I wanted to take this experience in and be washed with music. With his new album, Fondo, getting critical acclaim and Vieux even garnering comparisons to Eric Clapton during the Cream days, I was expecting a true guitar fest.

So to quickly drop some knowledge , Ali Farka Toure, Vieux's dad, was the most popular of all the Malian musicians. He was voted the #76 greatest guitar player of all time in Rolling Stones list of top 100, and was accredited with taking aspects of the blues, reggae and Latin music, and showing its roots in the West African rhythms and cultures. While most people believe that all of American music (sans Classical music from Europe) came from Africa, his goal was to prove it. Vieux takes a similar but much more interesting approach. Within his African music he plays the blues, and even at points rocks harder than any other musician I've ever seen.

Vieux began his set with a piece entitled Mali, which is an instrumental homage to his home country. He plays with amazing technical prowess, sometimes playing the same pattern over and over but yet making it sound very different. The entire time he is playing he is smiling and looking at his musicians, you can tell that he loves the music and the guitar is like another appendage for him. He moves into another song entitled Wale, which I thought was funny. It really shows sometimes that musical inspiration comes full circle.

After these two short tunes, he moved into what would be one of the preliminary highlights of the evening, a song called Diaraby, a song his father used to play. In his father's version (which is findable on Youtube), he plays it slow and very heartfelt, as the lyrics would basically call for. "What is wrong my love? It is you I love. Your mother has told you not to marry me because I have nothing. But I love you. Your friends have told you not to marry me because I have nothing. But I love you. Your father has told you not to marry me because I have nothing. But i love you. What is wrong my love? It is you I love. Do not be angry, do not cry. Do not be sad because of love." Vieux took this song to inspirationally new heights, he played it extremely sped up and with such raw power and emotion, it made the lyrics more powerful, important and urgent. At this point the crowd felt Ali's presence with them and many of the Malian musicians had giant grins on their faces for the entire song.

In one of the most amazing things I've ever seen at any concert ever, people from the audience (friends and family I presume) began to come up and throw money on Vieux, in a "make it rain" kind of fashion. I can only assume that it's a tradition where people throw money on the musician and try to make it stick to their sweaty heads. The Grammy nominated musician was first, but many more came up after. The stage was not just a stage, it was a gathering place where anyone could walk or play. It became littered with 1's, 5's , 10's and even a few 20's and Vieux stood on top of it all.

During the song Fafa, the lead track off his new album which roughly translates to brothers and sisters, as in we are all brothers and sisters in this world, members of the other bands came on stage, seemingly uninvited, to play with Vieux. Women came up and danced, children stood to the side of the stage singing along with the crowd. Vieux would interact with them all. At points he would walk up to the other musicians on stage look at them as to say "play with me." And they did. Each musician on stage was provoked to play their best in the face of Vieux. When the women came up to dance, Vieux danced with them. Nothing seemed off limits.

Then my the cultural highlight of the show and generally, the best blending of West African culture and DC indie rock came together. Tom Hnatow from these United States, and Michael Pahn and Burleigh Seaver from Shortstack came up on stage to play with Vieux for a song entitled Inne. They played by far the slowest song of the night which had weaving beautiful melodies. Tom and Vieux hit off their musical connection rather quick and they stood near each other working beautiful improvised melodies within each other.

My personal highlight came in a song called Walahidu which again featured Tom on lap steel. This was a true rocker and a really fitting song. With now 2 people from the opening bansd on stage with him in addition to Tom, Vieux had this entire orchestra of musicians on stage and took this opportunity to play the loudest and most amazing song (in my opinion) in his rep. Throughout the entire song, he would reach these amazing climaxes and have these intense guitar battles with Tom, each showing off their skill and prowess. Finally, Vieux broke into these power rock chords and slammed them out while leaning back, for a moment, I felt Clapton and Ali fused. This is the future of West African music. This is the future of what I can only call "World Rock." The power that he played with and his ability to evoke emotion out of the entire crowd, leaving so many smiling, happy faces, showed that he is a force to be reckoned with. I left into the warm night air feeling that I had just seen one of the worlds greatest guitarists in the most intimate setting, and I started to smile too.