Masada Mess - Part II

Continued from: Masada Mess - Part I!

Long story short, we got to Masada about 4:30, about a half hour after David Broza started playing. After being totally exhausted and dehydrated. After the worst bus ride of my life. After getting really pumped about seeing Broza live at Masada.

So we arrive, unloaded ourselves from the bus, and upon walking into the amphitheater, we had a view much like this:



And this:



And this:



We could see the stage clearly – it was a small crowd, no more than 800 people, and so we were definitely close despite our late arrival. For an outdoor concert, the sound was great. The lights, as well, were fabulous. They used Masada as a back drop, and had a whole light/pyrotechnic show on the mountain.

Broza himself, well, he was awesome. The last (and first) time I saw him was on Yom Haatzmaut in Kikkar Zion, in 2005. How can you top that performance? Sunrise concert at Masada - betach! He was rocking out. He plays a mean acoustic guitar, really rips into his songs. I'm not very familiar with his catalog, but all of his songs have heavy political and social connotations while rocking out. He played with this fabulous percussionist and bassist, and often the three of them were joined by lots of guests: a mondolin player, a violinist, and a group of young-hip-hippie looking musicians and singers who rocked and danced with Broza for the last few songs of the set.

And during the concert, the sun came up, and it got lighter and lighter until, during the set closure of “Under the sky” (his best song, in my opinion) while 15 or so musicians totally jammed and rocked out, the sun appeared over the Jordanian horizon. It was incredible.

It looked something like this:



And this:



And this:



And this:



The bus ride home was uneventful, although it was substantially longer than the ride there (traffic? The bus driver fucking with us?). Mostly we slept. I napped and then did a crossword. We got back to HUC around 9AM, and like the diligent student I am, I went to class. Most of the group went to sleep. But I pulled through, like the youthful all-nighter puller I am (yeah right). There was some interesting side effect, though, about being really tired. I talked a lot in class. My mind stopped thinking and I just talked. I made a lot of mistakes, but I used my Hebrew, and used it a lot more today. And hopefully more tomorrow.

So that’s my David Broza-Masada mess. On the bus ride to the show, Ari and I discussed whether this story would be funny, something to laugh at, something amusing, to us in the near future. We decided it would be memorable, but not amusing. And two days after, it still isn't funny to me. But it can be funny to you.