Watch Kurt Vile jam with Tinariwen at Union Transfer
The Philadelphia guitarist sat in with the Northern African desert-blues band after guesting on their new album 'Elwan'.
It was an evening of international cooperation at Union Transfer on Tuesday night.
Camdodian-American psych-rock band Dengue Fever, fronted by singer Chhom Nimol, opened the show. They were followed by headliners Tinariwen, the North African desert blues band from the border regions of northern Mali and Libya.
Philadelphia was represented as well. Towards the end of the show, hirsute guitarist Kurt Vile came and sat in on the trance rock song "Tiwayyen," laying back in the rich, atmospheric groove, but also getting his licks in.
The members of Tinariwen - who also brought Nimol and a Dengue Fever guitarist out to play - wear long flowing robes on stage and sing in the Tuareg langauge of Tamashek, and their English is limited. Throughout most of the show, the stage patter consisted of "It's okay? Thank you."
Vile played on the studio version of "Tiwayyen" on the band's excellent new Elwan, however, which was recorded in the same studio in Joshua Tree in California's Mojave Desert where Vile cut his 2015 album b'lieve i'm goin down. When he made his entrace at the UT, the hometown hero (who now lives in Mt. Airy) merited an extra special "This is our friend.... It's okay?" intro.
Watch a clip of Vile sitting in below. Sorry for the blurriness of the images.