Crocodile Rock Allentown

Kenny Wayne Shepherd added to Crocodile Rock Cafe lineup

Reggae-rapper Matisyahu looks forward to another 'really fun show ...

Hasidic Jewish reggae-rapper Matisyahu, who Sunday will play a show at Allentown’s Crocodile Rock Café, says he remembers fondly his last trip to the Queen City – to play last year’s Mayfair festival.

Matisyahu headlined last year’s return of reggae night to the five-day Memorial Day festival in Allentown’s Cedar Beach park.

In a concert that was equal parts religious service and party -- OK, probably a good deal more party – Matisyahu held an audience (and himself) enrapt for an hour and 40 minutes at that show, which was  on Mayfair’s opening night.

The audience of what looked like more than 3,000 under and around the main stage Cabaret tent was so frenzied that the concert marked the only crowd surfing this reviewer has ever seen at Mayfair.

He played a 100-minute show, that included just 11 songs – meaning they averaged nine minutes each with their long interludes. Included in that show was perhaps his best song, “One Day,” the 2010 Winter Olympics theme.

An equally popular song, “King Without a Crown,” closed the show and stretched more than 20 minutes.

Asked in a recent telephone interview whether he remembered the Allentown show, Matisyahu said, “Yeah, of course.”

 â€œI remember the show, and I was actually thinking about it today,” he said. “I didn’t realize I was going to be doing an interview, but I was checking out the dates [the Croc Rock show is just the second date of this tour, which opens tonight].

“And I saw Allentown and I remember that show. I remember that being a really fun show.”

Matisyahu is touring to promote his latest disc, “Live at Stubbs, Vol. 2,” a CD/DVD package released in February as a follow-up to 2005’s “Live at Stubbs,” the singer’s breakthrough album that went gold and produced the gold single “King Without a Crown.”

Read a story about the upcoming Crocodile Rock show based on the interview in The Morning Call Go Guide on Saturday, and come back here to As The Morning Call's assistant features

Her music was influenced by her mom, who hasn't

caught the rock bug young. The TMC Harrisburg Correspondent bought his first record, U2's "Under a Blood Red Sky," at age 13 and hasn't looked back. Besides listening to artists ranging from The Ramones to Dean Martin, Micek also writes about music, his work appearing in publications including The Big Takeover, Pop Culture Press and Playlist magazine. He is also a former contributor to PopMatters.com. And when he's not writing about music, Micek is playing it. From 2002-07, he fronted Milkshake Jones, a power-pop act that released two critically acclaimed (if woefully overlooked) records on The Paisley Pop Label of Portland, Ore. These days he handles bass guitar duties for Fink's Constant, a ska and reggae band that gigs regularly around central Pennsylvania.

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