There are, literally, almost no words to describe Tinariwen’s performance at Minneapolis’ Cedar Cultural Center. The Malian Tuareg band members only speak their native language, Tamashek, and French, so guitarist/vocalist Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni optimized his limited English by repeatedly asking, “Is okay? Ca va?” It was more than okay: Tinariwen’s transfixing, timeless fusion of American classic rock and blues with traditional sub-Saharan protest songs garnered three encores, perhaps because this was Tinariwen’s last stop on its North American tour (or, perhaps, they included one for each decade the band has been playing).

The Cedar, which often hosts international musicians, was the perfect venue for this multicultural lineup. Swiss songstress Sophie Hunger opened, backed by a trombonist—and occasional chest-thumping percussionist—and an acoustic guitarist. Whether on keyboard, solo vocals, or guitar, she produced a melodic blend of folk, vaudeville, and 1920′s speakeasy jazz. Her fluid segues between German, French, and English were admirable, as were her band’s multifaceted, tight musicianship and her version of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Free No. 10” sung as “Sophie Hunger Blues”. But the calculated theatricality of Hunger’s performance, from the aforementioned torso drumming to intense facial expressions and dramatic execution, unfortunately both distracted and detracted from the performance.

When Tinariwen took the stage, the room’s energy palpably increased, and the audience’s collective heart rate started racing. Here was a legendary group of African musicians who formed in Tuareg rebel camps in the 1970s, many of whom later fought in Libya and Mali’s civil conflicts. Tinariwen couldn’t even record its latest album, Tassili, in Mali, because the political situation there is still too precarious. Bandleader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, who took the stage six songs into the set to perform Tinariwen’s newest material, exhibited this world-weariness in his sad brown eyes and slow, deliberate movements. Tracks like “Aden Osamnat” and closer “Imidiwan Ma Tennam” smoldered live, more electrifying than Tinariwen’s older material, even though Tassili was a noted departure from the band’s plugged-in sound. On the slow, sweet “Walla Illa”, Hunger returned to the stage, taking over backing vocals sung by TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone on the record.

For the second encore, one of the band members took the stage with a shepherd’s flute before the rest of the band joined him in a hair-raising, droning vocal canon. It more than prepared the audience for Ag Alhabib’s awaited return to the stage for the third encore. He thanked the audience effusively in French before bringing the rest of Tinariwen onstage to close out the night.
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