Sun 9/1 @ 8PM
Matisyahu, nee Matthew Miller, made quite a splash when he hit the music scene back in 2004.
Here was an upper-middle class jam-band kid who followed Phish as he developed his own version of contemporary hippie music, blending reggae and hip-hop.
But by the time he was making music for public consumption, he had undergone a spiritual transformation and was doing so as a bearded, black-clad Hasidic Jew, who kept kosher and didn’t perform on Fridays, the Jewish sabbath.
In the last several years, he’s undergone another transformation, backing off from some of the more conspicuous Jewish observances. By the end of 2011, he’d shaved his beard and was looking like any former hippie kid now in his early 30s.
He’s still observant, and his Judaism still informs his music, as his latest release, last year’s Spark Seeker, demonstrates. He just doesn’t look like an old man you’d see on the streets of Crown Heights.
He’ll be at the House of Blues. Tickets are $23 in advance, $25 day of show.