Posted on Feb 10th 2010 1:00PM by Jeremy Krinsley
It was their performance at last year's Coachella that most markedly raised North American music critic's attention to the 17-year running Tuareg music collective known as Tinariwen. Bloggers were downright ecstatic at their sunset performance.
So while it won't be the first time that Tinariwen has played a show on North American soil, nor titillated its press, it will be a fully loaded Tinariwen that tours the continent this spring, as Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, arguably the spirit behind the band, will be standing front and center throughout the tour.
The group's founding member, who grew up in refugee camps and was said to have led armed rebels against Mali's government (with a Kalishnikov in his hands and a guitar strapped on his back, no less), was denied entrance on the band's most recent trips through North America, but World Village has announced that Alhabib has surmounted his visa troubles and will be attendance throughout the band's February and March dates.
Check out the full tour schedule after the jump, and for more details on the band and Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, check out this comprehensive biography on their website.
Tinariwen North American tour dates:
FEBRUARY:
15 - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
16 - Wexner Center for the Arts Columbus, OH
18 - Highline Ballroom, New York, NY
19 - The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY
20 - UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
21 - San Francisco Jazz Festival, San Francisco, CA
23 - Triple Door, Seattle, WA
25 - Orpheum, Vancouver, Canada
27 - Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, IL
MARCH:
4 - The Phoenix, Toronto, Canada
5 - Club Soda, Montreal, Canada
6 - Palais Montcalm, Quebec, Canada
JUNE:
26 - Central Park Summerstage, New York, NY
