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.