Mdou Moctar w/ The Mountain Movers 9/26/17 Lyric Hall

First time seeing a show at New Haven's historic Lyric Hall in the Westville section. You enter the venue from Whalley Ave into a large sitting room, snake through a creepy hallway to a decidedly European room with a bar, another creepy hallway and into the intimate stage room. There was a balcony, but it was unclear if it was VIP or general admission. Local psych purveyors The Mountain Movers warmed up the crowd. Two guitars, bass, and drums filled the hall with sound. The young lady on lead guitar has been positively reviewed in this blog in her other incarnation, Headroom. Sparse vocals with loud guitar shards is the MM m.o. The crowd seemed at capacity and eagerly awaited Mdou Moctar. The group was a trio with Moctar on lead guitar and vocals,  rhythm guitar, and drums. The trio are from Nigeria and wore the traditional Touareg garb. The drummers face was completely obscured. Moctar is the real deal. Nimble playing of trance African rhythms, it looked like he was tickling the guitar. Shades of blues and Hendrix topped with vocals in their native tongue was intoxicating. I was close enough to notice that Moctar had awful teeth for a man that wasn't 30, Bedouin dentists must be few and far between. The trio whipped the crowd into a frenzy,  one revel ler hopped on stage and started throwing money around in a cringeworthy show of adulation. Moctar took it in stride, I even saw the fan give him a hug after the show. This was a fantastic show in a surreal venue.

Frode Gjerstad Trio with Steve Swell 9/22/17 Firehouse 12

Norwegian free jazz trio has FG on alto sax, Paal Nilssen Love on drums, and Jon Rune Strom on bass were joined by American Steve Swell on trombone. After a hilarious story by Swell which chronicled his time with the trio touring the states going from Waffle House to Denny's while nightly plying their brand of Nordic free jazz, before launching into a maelstrom of sound. FG had a Lester Youngian emboucher with a side of Dizzy Gillespie cheek puff. It appeared that Gjerstad's left brain was melting and came out the sax in a torrent of sound. PNL has played with Miles and other jazz luminaries and played in the vein of Scandinavian greats like Han Bennink. JRS was younger than the rest, but held his own with an active, percussive style. Swell was genuinely happy to play with these guys, and brought a jousting complexity to the sound. Swell was able to make wind and weather sounds through breathing and use of a plunger mute. I got a chuckle thinking about this troupe ordering Moons Over Mi-hammy at Denny's, and the waitresses at these joints having no idea the nature of their night job.

The Pixies 9/19/17 College St. Music Hall

The Pixies have been around since the 90s. Frontman singer and guitarist Frank Black, bassist Kim Deal, lead guitar, and drums comprised the quartet. Near capacity crowd at College St. was an unusual cross section of ages. Many fans were in their 40s and 50s, but there also was a cadre of 20 year olds. Did they stumble on their parents CDs? Are there new hits in the mix? Being around as long as they have, the Pixies had some charitable hits, This Monkey's Gone to Heaven, Where is My Mind?, cheeky cover of Here Comes My Man and Neil Young's Winterlong from the fabulous first Bridge School Benefit. Black's screech veered from punk insistence to angry dad with a couple of beers in him while Deal is the real deal. The Pixies seem to be comfortable in their position of rock royalty and occasional touring.