This show could have been called "Matisyahu and friends" because it seemed like one big party on the Webster stage Tuesday night.
The Jewish reggae artist, who is known for his uplifting songs about unity and peace, put on an awesome concert, showing off his rapping and beat-boxing skills. An added bonus: During his performance, he let a bunch of guest rappers came on stage to show off their own lyrical skills, some even pandering to the audience by mentioning the Hartford Whalers and UConn Huskies. I couldn't really keep track of them, but they were all pretty cool, and they came in during a lot of good, fun, upbeat songs.
The opening band, Soja, was also good with the same funky reggae feel - and they got even better after they offered their CD to everyone in the audience for however much we wanted to pay for it. I paid $5.
The lead singer from Soja even came onto stage with Matisyahu to do a Bob Marley song together.
(Yes, I took these photos with my cell phone.)
Matisyahu fake ended with a long, really emotional version of "One Day," but then came back for a kind of weird encore. It was exciting at first that everyone came back, but then it turned into a long jam session. Then some guys left the stage while others kept playing. Then the last two guys left, and it just sort of ended. I think the people who stayed were waiting for a big finale, maybe a real song, but they didn't get it. I think the Webster was even confused because it took a little while for the lights to go off.
On the brighter side, Matisyahu's friends were wayy cooler than Arlo Guthrie's family.
