The crowd was emanating and ready to roll. There’s a good music scene in Asheville and a beat like Matisyahu is going to resonate with eager folk lined up on a Sunday night for a sold out show at the Orange Peel.

The band emerged ready to back the man of the hour, starting with heavy notes and moving into a smooth transition for their introduction. Matisyahu, the prominent religious/reggae all-star who sings hymns and raps with fluidity, comes to front and center in an all-too-cool collected manner. He’s ready to share his voice and so he lets go and gives himself to all who stand with open and listening ears, which is most.

Dub Trio is the band that is backing, along with the long-standing guitarist Aaron Dugan; they are solid, open to spontaneity, and are all the elements of a good dynamic musical group. They present a totally unique style, expressive of ideas, thought, and music, at the right speed, warming the crowd to their touch.

Matisyahu glides across stage in baggy Brooklyn pant-wear, a Yamacha, long grey Hasidic curls, and a burly bushy beard -- at ease with his own presence as well the audiences. He is assertive, but gentle. His melodies carry from his voice across the venue and dance in front of faces, there to take in and feel inside. It is vibrant. He is aware of those he is performing for and begins with certainty and an overall welcoming message that makes one feel honored by simply listening. A Jewish-Rastifari if there ever was one.

As the music played a feeling of control dominated and they moved from extreme to extreme in a groove that ran with the showman. Matisyahu worked over the band, getting his rhythm and voice attuned and awakened to give all the deep truth that echoes with his words.

There is such a poetic message behind all the songs and even if the words are beyond language, they can still be understood. It is the sound that is sought and the heart behind it. This is what they’re putting out and the theme that ran the set.

Well into a long jam, Matisyahu climbed the speaker stack on the far left stage and perched like an eagle far above the moving sea. He let his feet dangle, Nike shoes lifting with the bass, and he just observed. His eyes glowed in welcome and they illuminated even from the back of the venue. Here the band took over, doing the dancing, and when the need to sing arose, he let it ring.

When the set was well underway, the improvisation carried home. Matis soon descended from his nest and returned to front and center, only to spread his wings again and leap forth into the crowd. Arms stretched high to support the performer. They caught the body and whirled him around, and passed him back to the platform again. Another few hymns and he soared a second time, on the opposite side of the stage.

Following this, Trevor Hall, the guitarist who opened, was called on stage to play a song. He played by himself, singing a long prayer he’d written in India, but he never finished. Rather he melded into the music as the band picked back up and he remained on stage till the set’s end. Another friend was called on to freestyle; free form at its fullest.

There was no introduction to this, Matisyahu’s friend merely appeared and began letting the words flow through him. Rapping from the top of his head and tip of the tongue, he spit free verse that not only made sense, but also sounded unbelievable. He was totally wrapped in the present and his poetry transcended. Matisyahu eventually chimed in until the two were passing verses back and forth.

They then called onto the audience to pass to the front anything they had on them and began rapping about what they received. Someone passed forward a wallet and identification cards were pulled out and sung about. Their mouths spit words to go with the objects, speaking about AAA, Visa, and Chris Columbus – the name the license read. Maybe not as meaningful as the history behind existence, but entertaining nonetheless.

Matis was called on twice for an encore and they put in their all for those last two songs. The people were buzzing when they finally did come off stage, positive energy bouncing everywhere. The music was finished and as the venue cleared out, all that was left was enlightenment.