Video: Matisyahu plays through Olympic rain at LiveCity Yaletown

by Travis Lupick on February 16th, 2010 at 10:35 AM

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Trying to navigate Yaletown’s bars last night was tougher than slogging through the melting spectator pits on Cypress Mountain. Water dripped from the hair of every patron on the site while jackets were rung out and all efforts to maintain decent appearances were abandoned. Everybody was in the mess together.

In the end, another capacity crowd at LiveCity Yaletown stuck it out through the rain and kept the Olympic spirit good and loud.

Monday night’s headliner was Matthew Miller—better known to his fans by his Hebrew name, Matisyahu—and he definitely gave the kids something to stick around for.

From spins across the length of the stage to leaps off speakers, the Crown Heights rapper brought seemingly limitless energy to Vancouver, and the crowd gave the same right back.

Accompanying Matisyahu was a three-piece band that sounded like it would have felt as much at home playing with the Allman Brothers as it did backing a reggae star. Perhaps a surprise to many, but one that was taken full advantage of as the group was given free reign to fly off into erratic bouts of improvisation that bounced between drum-powered easy reggae and guitar-led hardrock.

Here’s the show’s opener, a take on “Time of Your Song” off the Youth album.