8th Day: A Concert Review

SUBMITTED BY FOURTH-YEAR STUDENT YONAH FEINSTEIN

The Marcus Brothers put on a fabulous show Sunday night, January 29, to benefit Chabad's Special Needs Religious School of San Mateo. These phenomenal five brothers, including three rabbis, a professional guitarist, and an advertising executive, rocked the house at the Bayside Performing Arts Center. Their set list included classic Carlebach numbers like the Shabbos Medley, as well as old favorites like Foreigner from Safam. They also played a bunch of their own songs, including their hit Tracht Gut (Yiddish for “think good thoughts”) and performed a special number in honor of their Bubbe. Overall, I give this concert two big thumbs up.

The concert was attended by four UCSC students and the Chein family of the Chabad Student Center.

For more info on the band or to hear samples, check out My8thDay.com or their Myspace.



The following are exerpts from a recent article on JewishSF.com:

Growing up in Southern California, Yossi Marcus and his brothers loved to turn Shabbat into their own personal Woodstock.

With family and guests gathered round the dinner table, the Marcus brothers sang their own arrangements of traditional Jewish songs, developing a keen instinct for harmony. And, somewhere along the line, for rock ’n’ roll.

Now many years later, the brothers have banded together to form 8th Day, perhaps the only rock band to boast three Chassidic rabbis in the line-up. Yossi Marcus is the rabbi of Chabad of San Mateo, while two of his brothers run Chabad centers in the greater L.A. area.
...
Why “8th Day”? Marcus explains: “The number 8 in Jewish mysticism represents the supernatural, outside the box. We felt the music and the message was tapping into that, trying to evoke a sense of breaking out of the personal limitations we put on ourselves and embracing infinity.”

Read the rest here.