Monday, February 28, 2005

RIGHTEOUS REGGAE

This has been a very strange and interesting week - musically, that is.

It started last Wednesday, when I shared a first class cabin with the band Hanson on my way from Chicago back to Atlanta. Pleasant enough fellows, but I could not help but wonder what would have happened had the Mistress of Sarcasm been on the flight with me. For years, she had a sign in her room that read, “Hanson Sucks.” No way she could have kept a straight face if one of the boys had tried to have a conversation with her.

Friday night, we were at Goldfish, an Atlanta seafood eatery. The featured musical entertainment was a talented individual on the piano and keyboard, a veritable one-man band. He got my attention when he played “Baby Got Back.” The Richard Cheese version, that is: hip-hop as seen through the Las Vegas Lounge Lizard Lens. That was good for a $5 toke in the old tip jar.

But tonight, ah, that was the best.

The Mistress and I hooked up in Buckhead and headed into Midtown to Smith’s Olde Bar to hear Matisyahu.

For those of you who are not familiar with Matisyahu Miller, he is a reggae/hip-hop artist who is also a Hasidic Jew. He made an impressive appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show back in December.

I am here to tell you, this boy is the Real Thing. He had the hall packed SRO, everybody moving to the reggae beat. Hey, I’ve seen Bob Marley, not to mention Toots and the fuckin’ Maytals, and as far as I’m concerned, Matisyahu can walk alongside Bob Marley in the pantheon of Reggae Greats...and he can kick Toots around the block and make his nose bleed.


Matisyahu. Josh Werner (bass) is in back.

If you get a chance to see Matisyahu, go. Now. It won’t be as much fun - or as intimate - if you wait until he’s packing stadiums. And besides, how often do you get to see a reggae artist who wears tzitzit?

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