Fried Mit Lipa Videos and Review!

(See all our Succos Concert Reviews Here!)
We’d like to thank TheCoolJew for allowing us to repost his review of the Fried Mit Lipa Chol Hamoed Concert. We hope to bring you more joint postings in the future. The review begins right after these exclusive videos. See many wonderful pictures at TheCoolJew also.

Fried Mit Lipa, Simchas Bais Hashoeva 2009 – Brooklyn College Review For THECOOLJEW.com

As I was stuck in traffic on the Belt Parkway on my way to Flatbush I had my music going really loud, (as usual) and totally not paying attention to my surroundings/ I randomly decided to look out the window to my right and left and I started seeing yidden everywhere. In vans, cars, SUVs, etc. I never saw so many Jews on the Belt before and I assumed they were all on their way to the Lipa/Fried Concert. Maybe that’s why there was a bit of delay in the show starting because the room wasn’t completely filled until a little after 8 PM. The lights dimmed, I had my phone and camera out for updates on my twitter.com feed, and I started to feel it all climax.

Freilach Orchestra opened up with a fantastic medley composed of Lipa and Avraham Fried songs and the sound was PHENOMENAL!! Keyboard player Mendy Hershkowitz, drummer Avrumi Schreiber,  trumpet player Moishe Fried, guitarist Nachman Dreyer and trombone player Yossi Farkas truly outdid themselves.  Extremely clear and crisp and 100% enjoyable. The introduction was a great way to get the crowd excited for what was about to come. The band was a 9 piece band as well as vocalists from the Shira Choir. All in matching grey vests…the show was underway. The MC then announced Yosef Chaim to the stage who came out singing “Biglal Avos” and totally rocked it. He was moving and shaking and in great rhythm with the beat. He also sang a slower song- Yerushalayim, and then went into the title track of his album- Lo Lefached. I had just watched YC perform this past Monday night and he was WAY more comfortable on stage tonight than 2 nights ago. I was very impressed with his stage presence and he did a great job.

I was unsure what was going to happen next, but I was pleasantly surprised. Avraham Fried came out singing Hesech Hadaas and whoa. He was moving around the stage as if he was flying. For someone who flew to Eretz Yisroel motzie yuntiv, came back the next day to fly to Montreal and then to Brooklyn he had great energy. He sounded great, voice soared through the entire theater and I was just so excited to see him. He then went into a great Yom-Tov Medley which was comprised of about 4 songs from yuntiv. Afterwards he told us his story of his travels in the last 48 hours as well as a Yom Kippur story which he then pulled out a siddur and sang a beautiful song- “Ritzei” which started off slow and then went fast.

Then, I start hearing the intro to Lipa’s “Wake Up” and Fried starts to sing. The crowd is looking around the stage, the room, the ceiling to see when and where Lipa would appear. And sure enough there he was, sleeping on a big desk chair. Fried tried to wake him, but he wouldn’t budge, so he asked to audience to yell Lipa’s name. When the audience did so, Lipa got up and the crowd went wild with excitement. 1. to see him and 2. because Lipa was on stage with Avraham Fried. The two talents sang “Wake Up” and did a great job waking everyone up. Now that they are both on stage they went for a round of Fried’s Moeda Ani!

Fried then let Lipa take over and Lipa came out wearing a Talis with a beautiful atara on it. He sang Shelo Asani Goy while keeping Tallis on the whole time! I love when Lipa brings out props. Its not just about the glasses. He then sang his hit song- “Hallelu” from his- “A Poshiter Yid” album, was a bit slower than the track on the CD. Lipa then got out on a more serious slow mode and sang A succalah a kleina. Avraham Fried came back and they sang Al Kein and then they went into a Carlebach-themed Medley combining- Yachad and Ki Va Moied together. They danced with each other and was a true delight to watch.

There was a short break and the band came out wearing Fried Mit Lipa TShirts. I WANT ONE!! They were really nicely designed with the picture from the concert ad. The Shira CHoir then sang Ribono She’ll Olam ( From HASC 2). Next came one of my favorite parts- Lipa came out in a gold vest rocking the room up with his famous “Binyan Adei Ad”. He moved all over the stage, dancing to and fro and extremely entertaining and not to mention one of his best songs! We were also lucky to watch the bongo player have a crazy solo which Lipa danced and sang to right next to him center stage. Lipa also did a bit of rapping here which was really fun. Next up is Hashem Zchoronu from his album Likro Et Hahallel. The Shira choir were all wearing their Shtreimels and Bekeshes for it. Next was Hasem Zechurunee which Lipa dedicated to Moshe Lax.It wa a very nice slow Yiddish song then fianlly and “Yener” off A Poshiter Yid. The song was written Moti Ilowitz (LIPA calls him “the composer of the new generation!”).

Fried came back out wearing matching vest to Lipa, they were joking around on stage in Yiddish. I personally didn’t understand the Yiddish jokes, but based off the laughter i can tell was funny. Fried and Lipa then sang karahod which was great! Then they sang “Keinaina Hora” with a bit of a jazzy tune to it. When he sang it he made note of how many wonderful people were in the room to which fried responded “Bein Kach – I love them all” which then went right into Frieds ‘Bein Kach’, then back to Lipa for Gelt, then Frieds “Adom Doyaig” (awesome song).

Lipa turned the stage over to Fried and Fried dedicated his Aleh Hakattan to GIlad Shalit and all of Klal Yisroel. Was a beautiful emotional performance. Fried then made a huge turn around and jumped into “Matzliach” which is a pure leibedik song and the men in first few rows were dancing everywhere. Fried then sang his “Playing with Fire” which was great and its one of his better english songs but i would rather see more leibedik hebrew ones.

Lipa comes back at this point and the two sing Aderaba, and Reb Zisha- in honor of Lipa’s brother. The song ended with Lipa giving Avremel a kiss on his cheek. (Aww). They spiced things up with Raboisai, Yerushalyim, Baruch Habo, (which a boy in a wheelchair was brought on stage for and he did some pretty cool wheelchair dance tricks) Then was Fried’s Levinyomim and Chazak.

Everyone went off stage and it looked like the show was over but then the band came out with big foam hands, and then the Shira Choir did as well and then Fried and Lipa came out from opposite sides of stage meeting each other in the middle and pulled off a riveting performance. The audience was jumping and bopping in their seats, clapping and waving their hands to their “Father in heaven”. Now everyone thinks the show is really over. its 10:30, and we were curious to see if that was REALLY the end. Its Lipa, so I figured there HAD to be more.

And indeed there was! Fried and Lipa came out singing Chalom and Nisht Gedaaget people were getting a bit antsy but enjoyed this last song in what was a true piece of art tonight.
I was very happy I got to take part in this event, Lipa and Fried are EXCELLENT together and I hope they continue to do more shows as one. Huge thank you to the people who produced this awesome show, Yosef Shidler and thecooljew.com as well as all my twitter fans. – I enjoyed updating Live from the concert.

Chag Sameach!!
Ich Bin a Poshiter Yid.

~TcK~