When the Mali soul-rebels Tinariwen come to town, there’s no chance of anybody missing history. SFN‘s Jack Cinnamond took to the Invisible Wind Factory for an evening of musical excellence.

There’s gigs constantly in the actual city of culture, but every few months we’ll be gifted a show like no other, last night was one of them as the Malian greats Tinariwen brought their legendary sound and overall atmosphere to the confines of Liverpool‘s ever-changing multi-purpose venue Invisible Wind Factory.

Taking to the stage at close to 9pm, the soft humming from the vocal members introduce the audience to a sound different that what usually haunts the venue. Immediately we’re hopped into a different world, one where Tinariwen provide excellent homeland blues and create magic simultaneously.

Throughout 90 minutes of pure sublime music, band founder Ibrahim Ag Alhabib would sporadically hit the stage for added guitar glory with the outfit getting deeper and far more adventurous per song, the quickness sets in when he’s around.

The packed crowd, featuring almost every known local from Stealing Sheep to Strange Collective, danced the night away while knowingly seeing something special. After a slow-build encore leaves everybody in awe, the band retreat to the back leaving us to our normal ways but hopefully with a little bit more joy and spirit from the act.

Words by Jack Cinnamond, photography by Phil Johnson.