The night kicked off at 7:33 p.m. when the seven members of the opening act SOJA straggled onto the stage and began their hour-long set. It would be the first of two shows that night for the band; shortly after wrapping up its set at Burruss, it moved all of its equipment for a follow-up performance at The Lantern.
The singing was split between guitarist Jacob Hemphill and bassist Bob "Bobby Lee" Jefferson. During Jefferson's moments, whose facial hair looks like two, long Arby's curly fries, he bombastically unloaded line after line of reggae-rap while his fingers danced over a five-string bass.
The band began with slower, reggae-based songs. However by mid-set, Hemphill was continually moving to one side of the microphone or the other, waiting for his moment to let another distorted guitar solo fly.
The members of the first act could not ignore the timing of the performance on Election Day.
"It's really a big day today," Hemphill said to the masses at Burruss, while wearing a shirt that had a mock D.C. license plate which read "OBAMA." "Did everybody do what they're supposed to?"
In between Hemphill and Jefferson stood keyboardist Patrick O'Shea. Behind him sat a few large bass amps that belonged to the bassist of Matisyahu. The word "VOTE" was written on them in a fashion similar to the Love Sculpture in New York City.
At the end of its set, the band took a bow and thanked the crowd. After a brief intermission, Matisyahu's band took the stage at 9:05 p.m. and began to jam. A few minutes into this, the rapper-singer himself sprung onto the stage and launched into the first song of the performance.
Despite Matisyahu's jaunty skip as he glided around the stage, his face was austere and serious as he sang in the beginning of his set. By the time the opening riffs of "Jerusalem" could be heard rippling out of the many speakers, a smile had cracked across his face as the audience recognized the tune and cheered ferociously. It was at this point that Matisyahu hit his rhythm, and allowed more smiles to come through. His dancing became more exuberant, and sometimes his gliding skip was interchanged with wide-armed spins.
"I love his style," said Alexandra Collado, a junior at Virginia Tech. "I love his voice. It's just so soothing and he seems very comfortable on stage. He really feels his performances, which is really cool."
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