All photos by Nikki Celis

Calgary’s Sled Island is an unusual music festival for a lot of reasons. In addition to the mix of indoor and outdoor venues that host the rock bands from all over the world who have chosen to come to Alberta, the addition of a yearly Guest Curator makes things extra weird. Each year a new artist is chosen by the festival to contribute a handful of acts to the concert’s lineup, and this year’s curator was none other than Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Known as being overtly political and experimental in their technique, seeing an artist that has been approved by GYBE would undoubtedly be an amazing experience, which is why on Thursday night I made my way into the basement of a Calgary venue to see Mdou Moctar put on a show I’ll likely never forget.

The venue was packed beyond capacity upon my arrival, making my entrance an exercise in linguistic finessing. Once inside, I made my way to the front of the stage in time to see three men, clad in Tuareg tunics and Tagelmust headdresses take the stage with Fender guitars. The three-piece band featured two guitar players and a drummer, the stirpped-down lineup being a refreshing change of pace from the typically over-filled bands that take the stage for Sled Island. Mdou Moctar was wearing all-white and had a smile plastered to his face the second his foot hit the stage, bringing with him a positivity that radiated throughout the crowd.

Once his band exchanged quick glances, they quickly set off on performing one of the most amazing feats I’ve seen performed with a guitar in recent memory. Playing his Fender left-handed in a Takamba style native to his homeland of Niger, Moctar did things with the strings that I have trouble putting into words. The best way I could explain it would be to equate it with the way Future sings—so precisely imperfect that it sounds wrong at first, before you see the beauty in the imperfections and learn to appreciate it on a whole new set of qualifications.

Speaking of Future, Mdou Moctar is said to perform with auto-tune, but if that’s the case then it must have been a toned down version of the tool versus the comically turned up application. When you’re unable to understand the words that a singer is performing for you, you’re left with almost no choice but to listen to the delivery. Despite his smile, Moctar’s music sounded sad, however that could just be a result of me not being used to the innotations in his voice and equating them with a Western standard for what “sounds sad.” In either case, his guitar work reminded me that this instrument was capable of amazing things when put into the right hands, and Mdou Moctar’s hands did things to it that I didn’t think were possible.

@SlavaP