Last Saturday night, I went to a Benny Friedman concert. Benny Friedman is a rising star in Jewish music. His uncle is one of the biggest stars. I hadn’t been to concert in a long time, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I’ve listened to his CDs and they were really good, so I decided to go. Not only is he a great singer, but he’s also an amazing performer. He knew how to play to the crowd really well, singing a few really high-energy songs at the beginning to get everyone into it, and then singing some slower ones. He was also making jokes the whole time, which was cool because it showed that he was really focused on what was happening in who was there, not just playing a set list of songs. Maybe because he’s so new, he’s willing to do things other performers won’t do. Like when a kid got pushed on stage by his friends because it was his favorite song, Benny handed him the mike and let him belt out the last few lines. Not only must it have been really cool for that kid, but the kid sounded pretty good to. Later, when some other kids came on stage, he stepped aside so everyone could see some kid playing the air guitar. I thought that was pretty cool.
He didn’t play so many of his own songs, which was annoying, but its not that surprising because he doesn’t have that many. He opened with one of his own, and he closed with Yesh Tikva, which has become his signature hit. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIPCHjFC9yk). Alot of performs lose something when they perform live, because
they don’t have all the special effects, but he was the same live as he in his recordings. It was pretty awesome.