Matisyahu @ Kalkscheune
I am going to attempt to write a review of Matisyahu's Berlin show in Kalkscheune without gushing. I don't know if I can though, so be warned.
First of all I had never been to Kalkscheune. It's behind the Kunstlerhaus, which is my favorite place ever in the world. It's pretty small, with a nice intimate feel but some annoying pillars in the way. They make a good, strong gin and tonic there.
The crowd was a mix of German reggae fans who didn't really know what was on the bill for the night and Jews from all over. I saw Davidstern tee-shirts, Hebrew college sweatshirts, tzitzit emerging from bowling shirts and all that jazz. I felt like I was at Oberlin, actually.
The set was great. He only played a few songs off "Shake off the dust... Arise." There was a lot of beatboxing and such. It was fantastic. I was dancing all over the place. I was so into it. At one point (I think it was during "Got No Water") I remember thinking, "G-d is in this room." (I don't normally write god with a dash or even capitalized, but that's what I was thinking at the moment.)
Then came the encore performace. I seriously regret having drank so much before this point because I can't remember exactly what it was he said, but I was totally bowled over by the spiel (song? speech?) he gave about the Schoa not preventing him from being there and not preventing us from being there and the only verbatim quote I remember is "but it couldn't choke me!" (Does anybody know if this was pre-written or freestyled? If he improv'ed that then I'm afraid I might succumb to idolatry and worship him. (oh the irony)
By the time he got to that part I was crying my face off, alternately attempting to continue dancing and standing like I had a pole stuck through me. Max, the non-Jewish Berliner whom I had just met, was standing there looking kind of panic-stricken by my reaction, which I thought was kind of cute.
I was really surprised that, from what I could tell, the rest of the audience wasn't really having the same reaction I was. I felt kind of embarrassed when I realized that but then I thought oh fuck it and went with it. Maybe it was good I had those drinks after all. Maybe other people on the other side of the annoying pillar were doing the same thing. I wasn't really paying all that much attention to what other people were doing by then.
Afterwards I felt like I had just run a marathon, and Max and I headed to the Kunstlerhaus to sit in the rocket and talk about spiders. I am still, a week later, in a daze. It was totally worth the 15 hours of travel time to and from Berlin and the 100 euro it ended up costing to get there and back.
First of all I had never been to Kalkscheune. It's behind the Kunstlerhaus, which is my favorite place ever in the world. It's pretty small, with a nice intimate feel but some annoying pillars in the way. They make a good, strong gin and tonic there.
The crowd was a mix of German reggae fans who didn't really know what was on the bill for the night and Jews from all over. I saw Davidstern tee-shirts, Hebrew college sweatshirts, tzitzit emerging from bowling shirts and all that jazz. I felt like I was at Oberlin, actually.
The set was great. He only played a few songs off "Shake off the dust... Arise." There was a lot of beatboxing and such. It was fantastic. I was dancing all over the place. I was so into it. At one point (I think it was during "Got No Water") I remember thinking, "G-d is in this room." (I don't normally write god with a dash or even capitalized, but that's what I was thinking at the moment.)
Then came the encore performace. I seriously regret having drank so much before this point because I can't remember exactly what it was he said, but I was totally bowled over by the spiel (song? speech?) he gave about the Schoa not preventing him from being there and not preventing us from being there and the only verbatim quote I remember is "but it couldn't choke me!" (Does anybody know if this was pre-written or freestyled? If he improv'ed that then I'm afraid I might succumb to idolatry and worship him. (oh the irony)
By the time he got to that part I was crying my face off, alternately attempting to continue dancing and standing like I had a pole stuck through me. Max, the non-Jewish Berliner whom I had just met, was standing there looking kind of panic-stricken by my reaction, which I thought was kind of cute.
I was really surprised that, from what I could tell, the rest of the audience wasn't really having the same reaction I was. I felt kind of embarrassed when I realized that but then I thought oh fuck it and went with it. Maybe it was good I had those drinks after all. Maybe other people on the other side of the annoying pillar were doing the same thing. I wasn't really paying all that much attention to what other people were doing by then.
Afterwards I felt like I had just run a marathon, and Max and I headed to the Kunstlerhaus to sit in the rocket and talk about spiders. I am still, a week later, in a daze. It was totally worth the 15 hours of travel time to and from Berlin and the 100 euro it ended up costing to get there and back.
posted by pesematology at 2:22 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home