Review and Photos of Matisyahu @ St. Andrew’s Hall 7/10/2011

The Matisyahu show in Detroit must have been sold out because St. Andrew’s Hall was packed! San Fran’s Teaf Leaf Green opened with a set of 9 polished rock, blues and country blended tunes. The band was an interesting choice for an opener since their music is quite different than Matisyahu’s. Nevertheless, I enjoyed them and plan to make them a part of my MP3 collection.

Matisyahu has a commanding presence on stage. This is enhanced by the fact that he is exceedingly tall. He stands a lean 6’5″. His height was surprise #1. Matisyahu has mastered the art of performance. His movement and stances on the stage were rhythmic and engaging. His charisma was undeniable as he inadvertently tricked each audience member into believing that he/she was the one the skilled performer was smiling, pointing, and singing to. If Matisyahu’s performance had been anything but exemplary, St. Andrew’s would have emptied out in about 30 minutes because the venue was hotter than my new 27″ iMAC packed full of nifty software. Surprise #2 occurred when despite the insane heat, Matisyahu climbed to the top of the HIGH speakers and stage-dived about ten feet down to the crowd. This was near the end of his performance. I was over-heated just standing still. Perhaps there is something to that vegan lifestyle! Towards the finale, Matisyahu let Detroit know he appreciated us by yelling out that we were, “CRAAAAAZY!” On behalf of the Detroit audience, we wish him a successful tour and a quick return trip to Detroit someday soon.