Good Medicine Presents: Etran de L’Aïr

Fri­day, April 14th @ 7:00 pm

Out­door show. All ages.

Etran de L’Aïr (or ​“stars of the Aïr region”) wel­comes you to Agadez, the cap­i­tal city of Saha­ran rock. Play­ing for over 25 years, Etran has emerged as stars of the local wed­ding cir­cuit. Beloved for their dynam­ic reper­toire of hyp­not­ic solos and sun schlazed melodies, Etran stakes out a place for Agadez gui­tar music. Play­ing a sound that invokes the desert metrop­o­lis, ​“Agadez” cel­e­brates the sounds of all the dynamism of a home­town wedding.

Etran is not just a musi­cal group, but a fam­i­ly col­lec­tive. Formed in 1995, an eter­ni­ty ago in the Sahara, Etran was found­ed by mem­ber Aghaly Migi. Over the years, he taught his younger broth­ers to play and inte­grat­ed them into the group. Agadez was much small­er than oth­ers, there was lit­tle elec­tric­i­ty, and the elec­tric gui­tar was rare. When the band began, they only had one acoustic gui­tar, and the rhythm sec­tion was a cal­abash float­ing in water ​“hit with a san­dal, to make a drum.” When ampli­fi­ca­tion even­tu­al­ly found its way to Agadez, the acoustic gui­tar was mod­i­fied, using a trans­duc­er micro­phone. In the past 10 years, the band was able to acquire more mate­r­i­al – a drum set, and a few elec­tric gui­tars. As the fam­i­ly grew, so did the band. Today, all the mem­bers are relat­ed, broth­ers and cousins. The size fluc­tu­ates per per­for­mance, between 5 and 9.

$22 advance $25 at the door