Join Men on Camels in Watching Mdou Moctar’s Stunning Concert in Niger

Ahead of tour dates in Europe and the United States, Mdou Moctar have released video of a special performance in Agadez, Niger, that they filmed last year. A 47-minute video, titled The Agadez Folders: Live at Sultan’s Palace, shows the band rocking out as men on camels watch and people dance to the rhythms in the city’s center at the King’s Palace. The quartet captured the performance around the time they were recording their latest album, Funeral for Justice.

In a statement included with the band’s YouTube of the performance, bassist Mikey Coltun recalled how the band scouted locations when they arrived in Agadez in the winter of 2023. They considered a well-known mosque and a famous bridge there, but those didn’t come to be. Fortuitously, though, singer-guitarist Mahamadou Souleymane, aka Mdou Moctar, made friends with people who could help them.

“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,” Coltun said. “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,” Coltun continued. “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 three to five hours away to be there for this special performance! Holy shit.”

Coltun’s shock reached its peak when he realized how seriously the Tuaregs took the performance and wanted to make it special. “When we started playing, Tuaregs dressed in traditional Agadez clothing armed with hand drums started dancing and drumming,” he said. “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.”

In June, Mdou Moctar performed at Brooklyn’s Warsaw, which Rolling Stone documented in photographs. They return to the U.S. in October, with North American dates running through early November.