What a thrilling experience to see ‘Matis’ perform live, especially this holiday season, on the last night of Chanukah, December 15th, at Terminal 5 in NYC . The Danny Zamir band was the opening band for the night: A chassid who rocks the flute with his Israeli bassist, guitarist and drummer. The audience is eclectic but very much authentic. Everyone from Chassidim from Crown Heights who have color and ‘hipness’ to them, to the Chassidim who are more primitive in dress, with their black and white suits have shown up. Then you have the Modern Orthodox crowd, usually teenagers in high school who are at their very first concert. Some families attend with their youngsters for what they expect to be a Jewish outing. Lastly, there are the Matisyahu reggae lovers, with no connection to Judaism other than their love for Matisyahu.
Matisyahu has his way of pumping up his crowd– they are all eager to see how he will make his appearance on stage. The transformation in his appearance is obvious to the crowd yet accepted with open arms once they hear the familiarity of his lyrics and tunes. This time he opens sitting cleverly on the right side of the stage on top of speaker system, calmly performing in a big mysterious black cloak. He begins to beat box– “bambom baboom”– and your heart thumps along with his beat, you are memzmirized and powerfully consumed with the soul and force that leaves his vocal chords. He’s got some Jewish swag, wearing his white kicks loosely tied. As the stage starts to clear from the smoke you notice the young girl on the cover of his new album Spark Seeker with a grin on her face and Medusa-like hair.
You glance up to the ceiling and take in the light reflecting off of the driedel disco ball turning around. Chanukah is in the air; midway into the concert, Matisyahu calls for a youngster from the crowd to hop on stage to help him in performing the ritual act of lighting the menorah. The young boy was shy and unsure what to do, so Matisyahu whispered into his ear and smiled showing him the way to light. He then breaks out into an intense blessing that then transforms itself into a melody about our forefathers and the sacrifice of the Jewish people to their father who redeemed them. The experience was moving and spiritual. It starts to blow your mind how you can feel so many different sensations and reactions to his music. One moment your soul is being lifted to the heights of holiness and then next your body feels like moving in all directions. How does he awaken both the soul and the body so genuinely?
New tunes and old tunes are played, the crowd begins to sing along and then there are some new jams novel to the ears of even the most avid listeners. He surprises his audience with guest rappers, and Yehuda Solomon, lead singer of the Moshav band. If there is anything Matisyahu knows how to do, it’s to leave his audience in awe at the closing of his performance. He removes his cloak and takes off his shoes, andwith a smirk on his face he dives into the crowd– they catch him and lift him up, sending him all across the stage floor. At one point he is standing straight up, the people holding him by his heels taking pride in the unique opportunity. He gracefully swarms back to stage to finish his melody, allowing the audience to enter on stage and dance the night away.
