Tinariwen

“Comment dit-on bonsoir en Allemand?”
There might be a language barrier, but there’s no communication breakdown here.
On a stormy summer night, desert blues band Tinariwen instantly build a bond with their Berlin audience.
There’s an immediate connection with this Kreuzberg crowd as founder Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, with distinct curls and moustache, joins his bandmates on stage.
Despite the flag-waving crowd’s elation, it’s a deftly measured performance from this resplendently attired Tuareg collective. Intricate electric and plucked acoustic guitar solos are used sparingly, and audience interaction – with band members venturing out to dance with the crowd – is never overplayed. While lead vocals and guitar parts are interchanged, Ag Alhabib and Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni are for the most part centre stage.
The energy rises until the entire room, including venue bar staff and security, is drawn in. Unsurprisingly so, given Berlin’s deep love of a raw, thumping beat, here coming for the most part from a giant dome hand drum upstage.
It’s a pulsing set that mounts in tempo, contrasting with the balanced and paced Amatssou, their ninth album, recorded with producer Daniel Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan) and released last month. Previous releases have seen Tinariwen collaborate with Josh Klinghoffer, Mark Lanegan and Kurt Vile, among others.
Tinariwen encores are a thing to behold, as the band deliver a raucous finale which has the crowd in raptures, starting with groovy, quasi disco bass lines and ending with a runaway train to end a sweltering evening.
Outside, the storm clouds hang over Berlin. Nothing compared to the drama and extreme climes of the Saharan desert, of course. But the lightning, thunder and torrential rain of north Europe's Storm Lambert is enough to hold the band’s tour bus back. Berliners would happily have them stay put.
Next stop, Glastonbury.

Picture credit: Anne ten Brinke