Festival of Light Concert Series, Hammerstein Ballroom, 12/17
Enough with the Chrstmas concerts. It's time to pay some homage to the Judeo half of the Judeo-Christian continuum. And who better to get down with for Hanukkah than our favorite (and world's only) Chasidic Reggae artist, Matisyahu. After all, he threw one hekkuvah Hanukkah party at Hammerstein Ballroom 12/16, 12/17 & 12/19, with the first annual Festival of Lights concert series.
In honor of the eight crazy nights of Hanukkah, henceforth follows the eight best things about Matisyahu's Festival of Lights.
1. Matis is just as good as I remembered. In fact, he's better. His year of intense media exposure and extended touring has matured him, thankfully, without jading him. And I'm happy to report that his performances are benefitting from that maturity. His voice is better, stronger, and more toned. Though, I will admit that he does tend to tire toward the last quarter of the show, allowing his tenor to get off tune from time to time. But he's so energetic and heartfelt, it's easy to forgive him getting knocked off key a bit with all the improvisation and bouncing around (literally, bouncing). My Hanukkah wish for you, Matis: A voice coach, to help you train up that tenor, so I have no need for disclaimers next Hanukkah. You're good enough now, so let's take it to the next level and make you truly great.
But I digress. Here's one of the crowd's faves from the evening to prove he's got the chops:
Jerusalem
2. Matis' fans let loose the love. It's not often that the kids from Hebrew School get such an outspoken and visually Jewish icon throwing them a Hanukkah party in the form of a rock show. What makes this night different from all other nights? This one is Matis' night. And as you can see from the video above, his fans cut loose with a gleeful abandon that suggests they might not get out to rock shows too often. Or maybe they'rejust thrilled to let out who they are in a way that isn't publically accepted all that often. They jumped, they bounced, they threw their hands to the sky, and there was joyous celebration.
3. Matis makes love to the camera. He demonstrated that he knows the value of a photographer in the pit. Taking every opportunity to stroll right up and tower over us, he gave each of us a multitude of photo ops yielding ample fodder for golden galleries. As a photog and fan, this made me very happy. And I'm rather pleased with the results...
4. Matis loves to dance. And watching him do it just makes you want to bust out in an ear-to-ear grin. In black hat and overcoat, plus classic Adidas, it's old world meets old skool. And it can be downright goofy. I dare you not to giggle...
5. Matis lights the menorah... on stage. After asking us to hold up our lighter if we hadn't lit the menorah that night, he asks if anyone in the audience reads Hebrew. In this crowd, are you kidding? Half the audience holds up their hands, but it's lucky Debbie (Hebrew name Haya Rivka) who gets pulled onstage to read the Hanukkah blessing from the prayer book, as Matis lights an oversize menorah. Yes, those are actual candles on actual fire. Watch and believe:
Haya Rivka & Matis light the Menorah
As many of you undoubtedly know (or maybe you don't), a menorah has 8 candles representing the 8 nights that the lamps miraculously remained lit in the Temple, plus a 9th candle in the center, used to light the rest. As you can see below, 12/17 was the third night of Hanukkah, with 3 candles plus the center one lit...
Meanwhile, I found it interesting that his set designer chose to echo the theme of the menorah in the larger lighting scheme. Check out the number of lights in the set: 9 across the top; 4 down both sides of the stage in descending heights (apologies that my lens wasn't wide enough to get all of them in the frame); plus the tallest one in the middle. Nicely done, sir...
6. The candle is the new lighter. Lighters are so 1985. Cell phones are so 2005. But candles? Man, that's so old it's new. Obviously, Matis' menorah-lighting moment was inspirational for the audience, as you can see from the shots below. Kudos to the bearded boy who thought to bring his own menorah to begin with. And thanks for sharing, Shaul. Passing around the candles was classy, comforting, and created community, right there at Hammerstein Ballroom.
7. He shows pride in the Tribe. Each night of the tour, Matis brought along for the ride another member of the Tribe. On the 17th, it was Ben Kweller, solo onstage, representing for the collective Hebrew crew. He gave a remarkably strong performance, accompanying himself on the guitar and on keys. I'm not a Kweller afficionado, but I'd definitely give him another listen based on the strength of what I saw that night. > Check out a whole gallery of shots from the show here:
8. He takes his Hanukkah show on the road. NY wasn't the only city where Matis would light the menorah this year, oh no. He also took his Festival of Lights tour to DC and Boston, before the festivities were through. It's good to share the love.
And just as he did when he closed out his CD Release Party at the very beginning of 2006, he showed that there's one source and one love that unites us all. No matter what faith, no matter what creed, we can all agree that's the right message for the holiday season.
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