Mdou Moctar, the musician who leads the band of the same name, is an absolute guitar shredder and a true road dog who’s earned a reputation as one of the best live performers on the indie rock circuit. But American indie rock isn’t the tradition that Moctar comes from. Moctar is a native of Niger and a giant in the world of Tuareg desert blues. For a while, Moctar and his bandmates were barred from returning to Niger because they were on tour during a violent military coup. Now, Moctar is the subject of a very cool concert film that was shot in his homeland.

Last year, Mdou Moctar and his bandmates returned to Niger to record Funeral For Justice, the excellent album that they released earlier this year. While they were over there, they shot a 47-minute concert film called The Agadez Folders: Live At Sultan’s Palace. The title is literal. It captures Mdou Moctar playing live at King’s Palace in the city center of Agadez. Their audience includes traditional dancers, swordsmen, and people on camels. It looks stunning, and it’s a very different way to experience Moctar’s music.

Here’s how bassist Mikey Coltun, the one American in Mdou Moctar’s band, describes the ad hoc shoot:

In Mdou Moctar, it is not out of the ordinary for well-laid plans to collapse at the last minute. For example, this happens a lot with flights being canceled. Maybe one of us doesn’t get a visa to travel somewhere in time. Maybe all of us don’t. Maybe someone at the embassy in Niger puts the visa sticker on page #1 — you know, that important page that has all your personal information like your name or birthday. As a result, we’ve all gotten good at reacting and maneuvering, and adapting an initial plan into something… even better!

When we got to Agadez winter of 2023, the first thing we did was drive around all together and scope out locations. We walked up a small building that overlooked the famous Agadez mosque and said, “All right, we’re gonna film here as the sun comes up.” Another idea was to film under a well-known bridge that connects the road from Agadez to Arlit — “Let’s set up a generator and play here! The kids will love it.” Those were two examples that didn’t end up happening because it was either not allowed or we overslept. That’s where the creative part comes in.

On our way to film at a location out in the bush, Mdou suddenly stops the car to talk to a guy walking a couple camels. They exchanged numbers. Unbeknownst to me, Mdou was plotting to get 50 camels to show up at the king of Agadez’s palace, where the famous Agadez mosque is.

This was an idea we had discussed, but much like some of our other concepts, I just kinda said “cool” and assumed it would fall through.

On our last day together in Agadez, we showed up to the Sultan’s palace, set up, and then waited around for a few hours. Was the show gonna happen? Maybe a few hours later, 15-20 men riding camels showed up. I didn’t count because I was so shocked Mdou was able to pull it off — calling this random guy we met in the desert with some camels, who then made some calls to get a bunch of Tuaregs (the youngest was probably 5 years old) to ride out from their village 3-5 hours away to be there for this special performance! Holy shit.

When we started playing, Tuaregs dressed in traditional Agadez clothing armed with hand drums started dancing and drumming. There were even a couple friends of ours who showed up with some swords and performed a traditional dance together as we played. This was all totally unplanned. Mdou, Ahmoudou, Souleymane and I are all wearing the signature Mdou Moctar colors — Tuareg purple mixed with white, which is the same color of the Mdou Moctar bird symbol.

Watch the film below.

Funeral For Justice is out now on Matador. Mdou Moctar is the subject of a recent New Yorker profile from Stereogum contributor Hanif Abdurraqib; I can’t wait to read it.