Stanford University Live presents Youssou N'Dour et Super Étoile
Bing Concert Hall
Stanford University, 327 Lasuen St, Stanford, CA 94305-5005 USA
7:30 PM, Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:40 PM lights down, announcements from Chris Lorway, band out (both guitarists starting on acoustics), Babacar Faye whopps up the crowd and calls on Youssou N'Dour]

1. [7:44 PM] Shaking the Tree
   [drop Alain Rodrigue Oyono, add Ibrahima Cisse]
2. [7:49 PM] Wareef
3. [7:56 PM] Serigne Fallou
   [drop Babacar Faye, add Assane Thiam]
4. [8:02 PM] Birima
   [add Babacar Faye, Alain Rodrigue Oyono; drop Assane Thiam, El Hadji Oumar Faye, Birame Dieng, Ibrahima Cisse]
5. [8:09 PM] Seven Seconds
   [all return]
6. [8:16 PM] Beykat
   [drop all but Abdoulaye Lo, Moustapha Baidy Faye, and Youssou N'Dour]
7. [8:25 PM] New Africa
   [band returns; Moustapha Gaye swaps from electro-acoustic guitar to guitar after opening riff]
8. [8:29 PM] Be Careful
9. [8:33 PM] Senegal Rekk
   [the tune aborts when a fire alarm goes off at 8:35 PM]

[8:55 PM lights down, band returns to hearty applause]

1. [8:55 PM] Senegal Rekk (aborted tune restarts)
   [Pape Oumar Ngom swaps from acoustic guitar to hollow-body electric guitar]
2. [9:05 PM] Dem (Leaving) » Immigrés
   [drop Alain Rodrigue Oyono]
3. [9:22 PM] Song Daan
   [add Alain Rodrigue Oyono]
4. [9:26 PM] I Love You
5. [9:32 PM] Yité
6. [9:39 PM] Bamba
7. [9:45 PM] Set
   [9:50 PM Youssou N'Dour, Pascale Kalemeni Kamga, Alain Rodrigue Oyono, Moustapha Gaye, Moustapha Baidy Faye, leave stage; Pape Oumar Ngom and Birame Dieng move over to the empty percussion rig, El Hadji Oumar Faye comes out front with his djembe while Moussa Sonko does acrobatics]
   [9:53 PM Thierno Sarr and Moussa Sonko off]
   [9:54 PM the drummers wind things down, then all off]
   
   Encore
   [All back]
8. [9:56 PM] Happy
   [10:00 PM Youssou N'Dour off, Babacar Faye slowly introduces the band, each band member leaves after being named]
   [show ends 10:07 PM]

• Ibrahima Cisse: keyboards;
• Birame Dieng: harmony vox;
• Babacar Faye: emcee, percussion;
• El Hadji Oumar Faye: percussion;
• Moustapha Baidy Faye: keyboards;
• Moustapha Gaye: guitar, ε electro-acoustic guitar;
• Pascale Kalemeni-Kamga: harmony vox;
• Abdoulaye Lo: drums;
• Youssou N'Dour: percussion, vox;
• Pape Oumar Ngom: guitar, @ acoustic guitar;
• Alain Rodrigue Oyono: tenor saxophone;
• Thierno Sarr: bass;
• Moussa Sonko: dancer;
• Assane Thiam: tama (small talking drum).

Busy work day, then long slog on BART to Union City and DB Express bus across to Palo Alto in order to meet Ting for dinner at Umami Burger. Tonight we went vegan, splitting an Impossible Burger. Yum! And since it was still kind of early once we finished, we strolled a few blocks over to Classico Gelato so I could savor a small bowl of Coppa Mista. Mmmmmn, heavenly!

We drove up Palm Drive and parked between Bing Hall and the Biz School quad, then walked in to Bing to take our seats a few minutes before the show started. Chris Lorway came out soon for opening announcements, pointing out that tonight's show was first at Bing to feature an end-stage configuration instead of in-the-round, and after a brief pause, it was time for Youssou N'Dour et Super Étoile to sweep us away.

Although Babacar and Youssou both commented to the audience that we were welcome to get up and dance, the typically staid Stanford crowd took awhile – four or five songs? – to get hip to the groovy mbalax beat. It's way more fun to get up and dance for real than to sit still and try to keep the dancing confined inside my head.

About 45 minutes into the show, something strange happens: the PA drops out (which leaves the drummers in charge!), the house lights come half-way up, and a minder comes out from side stage and waves frantically until Babacar notices him, hears his message, and communicates to the rest of the band that there's an emergency. As they stop and then file off, it becomes apparent that the fire alarm is going off – the drummers did a fine job of drowning out the electronic beeping – and without the distraction of the band onstage, we notice the flashing red lights here and there throughout the hall. Oh great! The house is cleared very slowly: as the crowd egress is pinched through four fairly small corridors – definitely an architectural design flaw! As best as I can tell, there is no real danger. Nonetheless, a fire truck shows up with lights flashing and siren blaring, but the guys inside aren't moving all that quickly once they park, and instead, a few of them appear to be mingling with the crowd. Must have been notified that it's just a drill or mistake. Soon we get the all clear, and Ting and I are back inside at our seats by 8:49 PM, waiting for the rest of the crowd to file in. Strangely, the couple to our right has departed, so we end up with lots of extra dancing room for the rest of the show. Yay!

Hampered by my inability to understand Wolof, I probably wouldn't have gotten more than a third of the tunes right in the setlist, except that Ting was smart enough to get a picture of it after the show. I'm reasonably certain that the list above is faithful to what was played tonight!

I was worried that the fire alarm would have caused the band to cut short their performance, but it appears that we simply got two sets instead of a single long one. Works for me!

The Zimbabwean band, Mokoomba played a free after-show party in the lobby, but after listening to a minute or two, we decided to head home instead of staying to listen or dance. Must be getting old, eh?

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!