Music / Reviews
Review: Lau/Tinariwen, Colston Hall
There was supposed to have been Omar Souleyman, too, but it seemed our dedicated Border Controllers had decided he was too Syrian, sadly. Nevertheless I wouldn’t say anyone left disappointed with the remaining double bill. Indeed, for me it proved something of a revelation as halfway through their opening set I finally found my way to Lauland.
Three previous visits had rather left me cold – not unappreciative of the music but not getting the buzz other critics and ticket buyers seemed to find. At first this was no different, but then, about half way through The Burrian’s sizzling instrumental, the relentless creativity and rock solid playing – enhanced by skilfully designed lighting from above and below that gave the sense of the trio sat around a campfire in moonlight – all suddenly fell into place and, By George! I got it. The borders of Lauland opened and welcomed another migrant, appropriately just in time for guitarist Kris Drever’s deeply affecting rendition of ’Ghosts’ – a superb song on that very subject.
Lau’s music is its own integration of folk roots into rock, adroitly using electronics to enhance their essentially acoustic sound , never afraid to let the rhythm follow the melody rather than vice versa and, bathed in the highly appreciative loyalty of a hall full of Laulanders, they were possibly one of the most majestic support bands ever.
There is something ever-awesome about the sight of Tinariwen’s swaddled Tuareg figures spread across the stage, a surreal and forbidding contrast to the invitation of their slinking assouf guitar riffs. It is the latter that prevailed, however, bringing the seated audience slowly out into the aisles or up in their seats, urged to move by the band’s own Bez-like dancer while the declamatory vocal call-and-response of each number unfolded. It really was an occasion where the seats should not have been there but I guess Laulanders prefer to be seated. The kinetic atmosphere built up anyway, the easy consistency of the grooving desert blues paradoxically cranking up the energy by the sheer Tuareg magic that the band has always conjured.
The encore section was a trilogy, including folk singer Sam Lee’s successful fusion of traditional song Oh Hangman with the Tinariwen sound, trading English verses with Abdallah Ag Alhousseini’s Tamashek chorus, the three Lau members joining Tinawiren for an instrumental workout and culminating in the band themselves simply doing what they do: a perfect ending that released the dance-happy crowd out to the bar and Awesome Tapes from Africa’s splendid (and much needed) chill-out zone.
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