So Matisyahu’s in Jerusalem for the holidays. Saw him at a show two nights ago – Samuel Nelson’s new band Semantra was performing at Canaan on Shamai street (they were pretty good!) – all the usual Nachlaot suspects were in attendance. So Matisyahu ambles over and tells me about a show he put together at the last minute – just him, his guitarist who was in town and a couple of locals. The show was in a small retrofitted Cafe near the shuk – it barely fit 50 people and there was a huge overflow crowd outside – folks who didn’t heed the warning that the show would sell out in like… a minute. Hippies… what do you expect? So yeah. Great show.

Sasha, who shot this vid, and I know Matisyahu well from his time hangin’ at the Jewlicious Festival. The locals were all “how you know Matis?” after they saw him talking to us. Sasha lied and said they used to date and I told them that I met him in Jail. Anyhow the Festival is coming up at the end of February. One of the things we want to do to promote it is to put together a compilation CD of some of the artists who have appeared at Jewlicious. That’s why this post has the schnorrer box. We’re still a little short of the $2500 we’ll need to produce 1000 CDs. Now’s your chance to help us out and get some phat toonzes. Donate $18 or more and get a free CD! Yay!

Follow me

About the author

ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

6 Comments

  • LOVED the video. Reminds me of why I started listening to Matisyahu (stopped when I felt like he was pandering to certain audiences) … but the passion is stellar.

  • can somebody please tell me where all these good shows get posted? i’m living in israel for 3 months and haven’t come across a good online event calendar! (one in english would be a big help too, as i’m only 1 month into my ulpan.. hahah) toda!

  • About pandering to audiences.

    This happens when evey indie goes signed to a label. They have to have more traffic, before it was more word of mouth, more real.

    I still groove on many of his early shows, so let’s not get caught up in Matisyahu, the house act, but as a Jewish performer, we take him for granted but he paved the way for many many musicians around the world.