The Gaelic Theatre sold out pretty damn quickly last night; especially considering Matisyahu is barely yet to make a dent on the consciousness of the musical landscape in this country. Yet sold out it was, and what an array of different folk had turned out for a night in which Sydney’s sky had opened to pour immense amounts of rain on those punters unlucky enough to be in the queue at the wrong time.

Matisyahu, apart from being a historical Jewish figure of some magnitude and importance, is a reggae singer from New York City. He’s gathered a large following in the US, largely on the basis of his powerful voice and spiritually intriguing lyrics. Much of the media interest, however (and here I include yours truly), has focused on the fact he is a Hassidic Jew, complete with spectacularly dense beard, skullcap, trench coat and an equally spectacular West Indian accent in which to sing.

It’s said his music is inspired by hip hop, but apart form his skills as a beat boxer, only adding to the uniqueness of his act, it’s hard to see the influence that clearly. But this was presumably the logic behind getting Aotearoa rap veteran Che Fu to support, and although he performed admirably enough, some of the more middle-aged members of Sydney’s Jewish community looked a little bemused. But they, along with straight up reggae fans of all ages, Americans, Israeli backpackers and folk who had just heard a good thing or two came to check out this enigmatic performer, and he and his band did a fine job of putting on a good show.

Matisyahu has been compared to Bob Marley, and although this is something of an (immense) overstatement, the people making these comments are simply trying to point out that he is indeed a talented artist, high up in the modern day reggae stakes – it’s just amusing, as well as admirable, that he has the back ground and appearance that he does.

His voice soared, the band jammed out skank rhythms, including some impressive solo drum work from the man at the back, and people clapped and cheered, not least when he removed his hat to show his skull cap, or when he dared to breach the topic of the current slaughter in the Middle East, simply calling for divine judgement to be brought upon the evil-doers on both sides. Also of note were the short Hebrew talks (presumably spoken without a Jamaican twang, although my ability to understand Semitic languages is somewhat limited) he gave, as well as the claim that the songs he performs are in fact all a type of prayer.

All in all it was an entertaining show, ironic not only due to the fact that the Gaelic Theatre was the place Matisyahu’s explicit Judaism was on show, but also most certainly in hearing the usual reggae topic of Zion approached from a different angle altogether.