10.18.2009 Matisyahu / Dub Trio

Well, sold out Matisyahu gig in Vancouver. Who would have thought? Does Matisyahu even get airplay in Vancouver? Anyways, before the show, I was wondering who would be opening. To my surprise, it was Dub Trio. It turns out they're part of Matisyahu's backing band. Nice. Apparently people have heard of Dub Trio, or rather fans of Matisyahu have heard of Dub Trio. You'll have to forgive me I still can't believe their fanbases would overlap. Dub Trio's 45 min set was as expected, lots of time changes, spacey "dub" jams, and a whole lot of style changes. Crowd seemed to enjoy it.

Dub Trio's Set:


Now Matisyahu I'm familiar with mainly due to his song "King Without a Crown". When he played it, it sounded totally different. Let's call it the "Dub Trio" version. Highlight of the set was probably Matis doing a full 3-5 min of beat boxing. There were many moments in the set where Matis would just let the band jam out and he would stand by the side of the stage and take in the energy of the crowd and the music. He's probably one of their biggest fans. This was a pretty long show. It's been a while since I've seen a Commodore show go over 2 hours. Actually, if I had to mention anything negative, it would be just that. The show was almost exhausting. Almost every song approached the 10 minute mark and had a fairly loose jam integrated into it. That being said, the energy from the crowd and the strangely mesmerizing intensity coming from Matis made the show.

$15/$0