NNF 2015

Songhoy Blues

16/05/15

It’s Norfolk & Norwich festival time and as we’ve grown to expect over the years its arrival brings the opportunity to see something truly different and exciting, with the Songhoy Blues show being one of the festival’s highlights. Entering the Spiegeltent shortly before 10pm everything was in place for a memorable evening of music in fine surroundings. 

The band began their set in an understated manner and you could hear a pin drop, they really had everyone’s attention. However as the set progressed I became increasingly aware of talking, lots of it, especially near where I was standing about ten rows back. Annoying but also indicative of the fact that whilst good, Songhoy Blues were not grabbing us by the throat in the quite the way I thought they would. They played with genuine exuberance and joy, lead singer Aliou Touré dancing and smiling constantly and yet for me and seemingly others around me it did take quite some time for things to truly catch light. It almost seemed a bit too polite, not loud enough for sure and the band lacked that edge of aggression that all good rock and roll bands need. 

The last thirty minutes of the set though were a joy, they once again had everyone’s full attention and delivered their best known songs Al Hassidi Terei and Soubour and finally the heavy groove of their desert blues sound properly delivered – really great and with some impressive guitar soloing from Garba Toure. At this point I could have happily listened to them play all night and most of the audience were properly getting down.

I think one of the issues is just a natural side effect of how the events are run the in the tent – no support bands mean you enter the venue and almost immediately it’s straight into the headline act whereas normally you would have several hours of build up to the main event. Not a criticism, just the way it is. The bonus though is after the band’s set you get to spend the rest of the night in a truly unique venue, with great music being played and the festival grounds to enjoy. Ultimately a very enjoyable evening and Songhoy Blues more than played their part in that.

Stuart Preston @StuPres