matisyahu

I went to a Matisyahu concert last weekend at the Minnesota Zoo and had an amazing time.
















If you've never heard of him before it might surprise you to know that he is a Hasidic Jew who is wildly popular in reggae/rap circles for his incredible fusion of those musical genres with the teachings of orthodox Judaism. I know that sounds too good to be true but...seriously...check it out and see for yourself.

(On a side note: embedding was disabled on the "original" breakthrough version from Live at Stubb's but you can still check it out here. The audience loves this guy.)

I'm not a religious person in pretty much any way, shape or form and that, I think, is where his appeal lies for me. If you get past all that stuff his music is still amazing to the core. It's essentially how the entire art should be: truthful and delicate and timeless to a fault no matter what the subject matter is.

I missed him last time he was in town at First Avenue and have been kicking myself ever since. Luckily he came back through. The zoo is one of my favorite places to see a show and, although I didn't get seats as good as when I saw Guster there last year, it was still amazing. There aren't very many other places you can go to see a show where you can watch the artist...
















...and then turn immediately to your left and see this. Minnesota in the summer is pretty great and the concert was over before sundown.
















Work continues on the opera...