Shreddin’ it forward: Growing up in Agadez, a desert village in rural Niger, Mdou Moctar built himself a guitar after seeing YouTube videos of Eddie Van Halen performing. Moctar combined Van Halen’s six-string techniques with traditional Taureg melodies to create a modern Saharan-rock sound, full of rhythmic drums, epic guitar shreds, and plenty of noise. Moctar gained a following in West Africa when his music was shared via mobile phone data cards, a popular form of local music distribution. His eponymous band’s 2021 record, Afrique Victime, is sung in Tamasheq and contains musings on love, women’s rights, and Western Africa’s exploitation by colonial powers. Promoting music is a cause near and dear to Moctar’s heart—when he returns home, he often gives local kids his gear from touring so they can form their own bands.
Saturday 2/26. $20-25, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com