When in Roam Like a desert sirocco blowing across the vast dunescape, the music of Tinariwen sweeps up traditional West African influences and swirls them into the modern forms of the West.  Composed of Touareg nomads from across Mali, Tinariwen are one of the first true groups to coalesce from the migratory cultures of Saharan Africa.  For more than 20 years, they’ve played gritty, guitar-driven songs that owe as much to the electrified blues of Muddy waters and syncopated skank of Bob Marley as to the indigenous griots that preceded them.  While their way of life is threatened by political repression and overdevelopment, this hardened septet draw attention to their people’s struggle with powerful poetry and a hypnotic groove that anyone with an ear for protest music can appreciate.  Malinese pop songstress Ramatou Diakite and Markus James share the bill. 8 p.m., great American Music hall, 859 O’Farrell, S.F. $20.

(Zwickel)