Across Five April Concerts, The Second Gig: Matisyahu and My Brightest Diamond

Every other year, Calvin College holds its Festival of Faith and Music, always a great opportunity to hear up-and-coming bands in an incredibly polite atmosphere. This year, Jewish hip-hop rapper Matisyahu headlined Thursday's show, after opener My Brightest Diamond. Both acts had high spots, but never really reached a peak with the audience.

My Brightest Diamond at Calvin's Festival of Faith and Music

My Brightest Diamond (Shara Worden), occasional Sufjan Steven's collaborator, played a six-song set featuring bluesy vocals and plenty of looped guitar effects (a recurring theme this year). The highlight of her set was a gritty cover of Prince's "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?" However, without any backing band, her set lacked the full sound of her recordings.

Matisyahu

The same was true of Matisyahu's two-hour set, featuring the rapper and two guitarists, both with plenty of guitar effects. Most of his songs fell into an opening verse - chorus - guitar solo/noodling ala Phish - beatboxing - uncertain conclusion pattern. Matisyahu's writing, freestyling, and beatboxing are awesome (listen to Live at Stubbs for evidence), but Thursday's set was aimless. There was no setlist, no passion. After just two songs, Matisyahu left stage to relieve himself, leaving one of his sidemen to perform. Not what the crowd really expected to hear.

After an equally loose Q & A session, Matisyahu got around to singing the hits "One Day" and "King Without a Crown." Unfortunately, by that time (nearly midnight), some audience members had given up and left. Perhaps they sensed the band had done the same.