ACL Fest Live Shots

Photo By Gary Miller

Matisyahu

"Me no want sensimilla," Matisyahu chants on his hit single, "King With No Crown." Playing before a massive, pungent crowd that was more than ready to burn one down, the Hassidic boy wonder, who styles himself an old-school Jamaican toaster, sounding pretty elevated nonetheless. "The King is here," he declared, "in the stripes of the British flag. ... He's in the eyes of the cowboy-hat-wearing man ... and in the people sitting on top of the porta-potties." The rest of the set found Matisyahu swinging between wailing psalms and dancehall chants, including a more than capable double-time rap in full Jamaican patois. Unfortunately, although his dub-friendly outfit displayed adequate chops, the music faltered recurrently; guitarist Aaron Dugan remains too reliant on sonic filigrees, and the rest of the band too often makes like a Police cover band (their new cover of "Message in a Bottle" is available online, go figure). Fortunately, whoever was working the video screens – often a distraction from stagecraft during the festival – packed the band's top rave-ups with rhythmic editing that added to the exoticism of Matisyahu's Hassidic style. By show's end, the singer was skanking with the masses (so much for Lubavitcher declarations that women are not to be touched), and that suited everyone just fine.