NEWS/NOISE NOISE B EAU GR EALY
SHLOMO OR SHTICK? Robin Kessinger gives Todd Hallawell a lesson in flatpicking.
GET ON IT, GUITAR GEEKS Todd Hallawell, who is a finger stylist, and Robin Kessinger, a flatpicker, spor t jeans, beards and baseball caps and look like a couple of guys you might find sharing a pitcher of beer and talking about spor ts. But these two are award-winning guitarists and while guitar geeks adulate the duo as they per form their bluegrassinfused tunes, Hallawell and Kessinger have as much respect for each other as their fans do for them. “Robin has one of the best feels for flat-picking in the business,” Hallawell said. “When we first started performing together, I played mostly fingerstyle, but after working out all the arrangements on our album Ear Candy, I found myself using a flat-pick more and more. So now it’s a combination of fingerstyle and me trying to keep up with Robin on the flat-pick. What a ride!” If you can’t find your guitar-playing friends on Friday, they’re probably at the Linen Building getting pointers from Hallawell and Kessinger. Local guitarist Dan Costello opens the show. 7 p.m., $15 adv., $18 door. Linen Building, 1402 W. Grove St., 208-385-0111, thelinenbuilding.com. Recently local musician Trevor Powers made a splash with his dreamy bedroompop project Youth Lagoon when his music came to the attention of NPR and Pitchfork. In an interview with BW, he said his debut LP would be out on Juno Records in June but it looks like the powers that be had other plans. The Year of Hibernation, Youth Lagoon’s debut LP, is due to drop Tuesday, Sept. 27, on Fat Possum. It’s a coup for the 22-yearold Powers, who doesn’t have much experience under his low-slung belt. He will now be labelmates with the likes of Dinosaur Jr., Dax Riggs, Townes Van Zandt and R.L. Burnside. Even T. Rex has a couple of titles on Fat Possum. Visit soundcloud.com/ youth-lagoon to hear YL. No fan of Steve Martin’s banjo playing will feel like a Jerk on Saturday, July 23. With the Steep Canyon Rangers around him, Martin will pluck his way through tunes so well-crafted, he’ll sound like a Man With Two Brains. Even a Shopgirl who has never heard of Martin would enjoy seeing him play, and the performance will probably be so entertaining, it could be an L.A. Story instead of one about a cool show that happened in Boise. That Martin. He’s such a wild and crazy guy. 8 p.m., $35-$99.50. Eagle River Pavilion, 827 E. Riverside Drive, Eagle, landofrock.com. —Amy Atkins
26 | JULY 20–26, 2011 | BOISEweekly
Matisyahu’s Hasidic take on dub reggae JOSH GROSS Matisyahu’s 2010 album, Live at Stubb’s Vol. II, opens with five minutes of spacey, ethereal noise beneath samples of a child reciting prayers in Hebrew. Later in the disc, he sings of “the glory of Hashem” (a Hebrew colloquialism for God), the “line of King David,” and evokes no shortage of Old Testament metaphors. But his music isn’t religious. At least not according to him. “Christianity is a religion,” Matisyahu said during a phone interview. “Judaism isn’t just a religion; it’s a lifestyle.” He compared that position to an interview he heard with Bob Marley in which Marley said that Rastafari isn’t a religion but a way of life. Rather than the dreads and bright colors Matisyahu may look heavenward for inspiration—or to see if it’s going to rain. associated with reggae devotees, Matisyahu (born Matthew Paul Miller) wears the tallit much, it became my gateway.” so compelling and polarizing as a performand payot (Jewish prayer shawl and side The music that interested Matisyahu er. It’s hard to tell if it’s genuine or if it’s curls) of Hasidic orthodoxy both on stage came from jam bands like The Grateful just branding. and off. He is a longtime resident of the Dead and Phish. But more than just their To see him live—which you can do at orthodox Jewish district of Crown Heights music, Matisyahu was a fan of the drugs Knitting Factory on Monday, July 25, or in Brooklyn, and his move away from the those cultures lauded. Chabad sect of ultra-orthodox Judaism was at an in-store appearance at The Record Matisyahu told Zing Mit Jewish EnterExchange immediately before the show—it’s reported by Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily tainment he spent much of the time from hard to view the man as anything other newspaper. His lyrics and videos have been ages 16 to 22 high and even did a two-year than deeply spiritual. Eyes closed, he cocks endlessly deconstructed in the intellectual stint in a Bend, Ore., outdoor school rehab his head back and sings skyward in a deep sprawl of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, program. He said he saw it as a transcentrance as layers upon layers of echoes and and like Walter Sobchak of Big Lebowski dent state but one he eventually realized he delay wash over the audience and staccato fame, he doesn’t “roll on Shabbos.” wanted to reach without the crutch of drugs. dub rhythms get people stepping. It’s even Matisyahu’s branding point as That realization lead Matisyahu to Israel “The way I approach live music, whatever an artist: Hasidic Jewish reggae. As a marand the full-body worship of orthodox I’m doing, I just try to get lost in it,” Matiketing gimmick, Matisyahu’s Hasidic Rasta Judaism, a move that would, in large part, syahu said. “I try to get lost in it live.” shtick sticks out in the best possible way, come to define his adult life and all the gold And he does. His live performances making him instantly recognizable. And albums and Grammy nominations that came are a deep gaze into the psychedelic abyss as a gimmick, it open doors that no other with it. that is as much Dark Side of the Moon as religious artist would be able to touch. “My life is not separate from my music it is No Woman No Cry—associations that Matisyahu has performed on Late Night like a day job that I leave and go home,” he with Jimmy Kimmel, had slots at Bonnaroo are barely hinted at on his studio cuts. In told Zing Mit. an age defined by the and recorded not one, But examining his music, it’s hard to find 140-character length but two live albums of a tweet, Matisyahu it to be anything other than overtly religious. at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in With Sub Swara. Monday, July 25, 7 p.m., Especially when he talks about spending a often stretches pop Austin, Texas. And $23.50-$50. week writing lyrics at the grave of Baal Shem songs to 10 minutes that’s just a small KNITTING FACTORY Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. They with waves of noise taste. But clad in his 416 S. Ninth St. focus on the Old Testament story of Abraand long rhythm yarmulke and black bo.knittingfactory.com ham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac and the jams featuring backcoat, he can also originators of the Hasidic movement. and-forths between perform at places As for what compelled him to start puthis band, The Dub like The Jewlicious ting that to a dub beat, Matisyahu said, “It’s Trio, and his improvised beatbox and Festival, The Festival of Light (his annual just an intuitive thing. There isn’t a logical dancehall vocals. eight-night concert run that coincides with explanation.” The complexity and voracity of MatiChanukah) and even spit bets just spitting But that still leaves the Holly Golightly syahu’s beatboxing easily stands out. distance from Auschwitz, the most notoriauthenticity question: Is Matisyahu religious “Most of my friends growing up were ous of the Nazi death camps, thereby tapor isn’t he? ping into a large subculture of young Jewish into rap and freestyling,” he said. “I just “It’s the wrong way to look at it,” he people hungry for something contemporary. picked it up. Someone needed to do the But that’s part of what makes Matisyahu beat. And though I wasn’t into that music so said. “This is my life.” WWW. B O I S E WE E KLY. C O M