With closing just around the corner, Magic City Music Hall found time for one more major act: Matisyahu.
This past Sunday, Flobots and Matisyahu rocked the Johnson City venue not only with instruments, but also with the powerful ideas that came from their hearts.
Chester French, the other scheduled supporting act, was nowhere to be found. The only answer from the venue regarding the band’s absence was that they were no longer a part of the tour anymore.
The attendance was only a modest 500 people, disappointing considering Magic City is closing Oct. 31. The smaller, more intimate crowd didn’t prevent the artists from making the most of the evening.
Flobots wasted no time introducing itself to the crowd. One of the band’s two MCs, Brer Rabbit, quickly interacted with the crowd.
“How you doing, Johnson City?” Rabbit said. “We’re ready to have a good time. It’s our first time here. We take first impressions seriously.”
The group combined rap and rock with political anti-war messages to create a powerful performance that got the entire crowd involved.
After Flobots’ performance, the floor filled up with more eager Matisyahu fans, such as Erin Prince, a freshman political science and linguistics major.
“I have been a fan for a while,” Prince said. “Even my rabbi used to listen to him.”
Matisyahu is known by his appearance; a bearded Hasidic Jew in a traditional black jacket and hat singing reggae/hip-hop is not expected.
After only a few songs into his set, Matisyahu quickly showed what he could do. Passionately performing songs with a mixture of reggae, hip-hop and jam rock, he not only rapped but also sung with a delicate croon. His slower songs were sung with his eyes closed, handled with delicate care. You couldn’t help but realize how important the lyrics he was singing were to him, as well as to all his fans.
Matisyahu delivered messages from his religion without over-preaching. This seemed to allow all of his fans, even those who didn’t share his beliefs, to connect with him.
The first part of the set featured some of his fast-paced songs that got fans old and young moving and singing along passionately. The middle section of the set, however, was too slow-paced for some fans. Morgan Denehy, a sophomore Arabic major, said that he liked the fast-paced songs a lot more than the slower ones.
“I thought the first part of his set was amazing,” Denehy said. “He was really into his performance and means what he says. However, during the middle, it lost direction and got boring.“
To the crowd’s delight, Matisyahu changed direction for a moment toward the latter part of his set to showcase his beat-boxing skills for a whole song’s length.
The set even included new songs, like “Struggler,” which will be on his upcoming album, “Life.” The new material seemed to get a good reception, but not like his hit single, “King Without A Crown.”