Playing the audience
After a brief light shower on Friday afternoon, the sun came back out with a vengeance. The White State was even hotter after the South African-Australian singer-songwriter Ecco Vandal started her set. She and her two resourceful sidemen delivered a canny blend of metal rap, reggae and pop fizz, and while the crowd was fairly thin they were a game group. The extra space was just right for dancing.
The audience grew considerably for Niger master guitarist Mdou Moctar, who pretty much played the audience as skillfully as he did his instrument. Repetition is a plus with the so-called desert blues, and as his tight, rocking rhythm section kept up a solid wall of beat, Moctar kept shredding and shredding, until it seemed the distant thunder was a reaction to his powerful noise.
“You guys are the best,” he told the audience, meaning Japanese people, whom he genuinely admires. Twice he left the stage to play his savage solos surrounded by ecstatic bodies. There was a lot of heart in that show.
