Khruangbin and Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré performed at the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn concert series at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park on Thursday. Vieux Farka Touré opened the show and also joined the Houston psych-groove trio during their encore.
Khruangbin and Vieux Farka Touré recently announced a collaborative album honoring Vieux’s late father and legendary Malian musician Ali Farka Touré. The aptly titled Ali is out September 23 via Dead Oceans. Khruangbin and Vieux Farka Touré followed the announcement with their BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn play which saw Vieux opening before the trio took the stage.
Khruangbin — guitarist Mark Speer, bassist Laura Lee and drummer DJ Johnson — kicked off their set with “Rules” off 2018’s Con Todo el Mundo. The band dipped frequently from the LP including “August 10,” “Lady And Man,” “Evan Finds The Third Room” and more.
The main set also included songs from the trio’s latest album, 2020’s Mordechai, with “Pelota” and “So We Won’t Forget,” as well as their 2015 debut LP The Universe Smiles Upon You with “Dern Kala” and “August Twelve.” Khruangbin also included an eclectic medley that featured music from David Bowie & Elton John to Ice Cube, Warren G and Ol’ Dirty Bastard followed by a cover of Kool & The Gang’s “Summer Madness.” The trio closed out the main set with Con Todo el Mundo’s “María también.”
Khruangbin trickled back in one by one to begin the encore until Vieux Farka Touré took the stage alongside them to perform an unreleased song from Ali, “Mahine Me.” The tune is based on Ali Farka Touré’s “Mahini Me” from his 1992 album The Source and carries the distinctive style of music Ali pioneered called “desert blues.” Vieux got the Brooklyn audience involved with a chant of the song’s refrain before he and Speer swapped some licks on the guitar ahead of the conclusion. Khruangbin would go it alone for the rest of the encore consisting of Mordechai’s “Time (You And I)” and The Universe’s “People Everywhere (Still Alive).”
Watch fan-shot video of Khruangbin and Vieux Farka Touré on “Mahine Me” below:
Setlist
Khruangbin at Prospect Park Bandshell
- Rules
- August Twelve
- Dern Kala
- August 10
- The Infamous Bill
- So We Won’t Forget
- Lady and Man
- Evan Finds the Third Room
- Pelota
- Bowie/Doom x 3/Dazz/Elton/Ice Cube/Regulate/G Thang/ODB/Electric/Get Money/Spandau/Wicked Game
- Summer Madness
- María también
Encore
- Mahine Me
- Time (You and I)
- People Everywhere (Still Alive)
