Beastie Boys live!

Beastie Boys
Charter One Pavilion, Chicago
Thursday, September 27, 2007

Two sides of the Beastie Boys touched down in Chicago for the trio’s tour behind this fall’s all-instrumental CD, The Mix-Up. The first was a chilled-out, stripped-down, generally wordless affair held at the intimate confines of the RivieraTheatre (billed as “A Gala Event,” complete with a “dress to impress” tag line), while the latter was all about the party, as several of the group’s key singles overshadowed a mere sampling from the new album.

Though extremely dedicated factions of the gang’s fan base might have leaned towards the former’s exclusive nature, the second installment had a more mainstream audience in mind and packed the outdoor Charter One Pavilion to the brim. As is generally the case, Mix Master Mike opened the evening with a few minutes of scratches and sampling, paving the way for the hip-hop-infused grooves of the Boys’ “Remote Control.”

But rather than the trio pacing the stage and passing slick rhymes back and forth, Mike D led the fold as frontman (clad in a ship captain’s uniform) as the more formally adorned Ad-Rock played guitar and MCA took to bass (backed by a percussionist and keyboard player). The trend continued on several occasions throughout the two-hour set, especially during current material, which also found Mike D on drums. Though The Mix-Up is a generally jazzy, occasionally trippy, and mostly low-key outing (better suited as background music in a bar or an Urban Outfitters than a dance club), some selections found greater life on stage thanks to funkier arrangements and animated showmanship.

“Suco de Tangerina” was among the album’s crests, loaded with loopy basslines, thick percussion thuds, and quirky strums, while “B For My Name” was laden with funky, almost gospel-like tendencies. Unfortunately, the standup-bass-centered “Electric Worm” and the sluggish downbeats of “Off The Grid” didn’t resonate with nearly the same degree of infectiousness, but the Boys still made a point to keep the self-indulgence to a minimum and address plenty of lyric-based material that made them famous in the first place.

The relatively recent “Ch-Check It Out” was delivered with urgency, combining the Beasties’ old-school origins with current rap/rock/hip-hip contexts. Despite rolling over the hill into the land of 40-year-olds, age wasn’t a factor during the aggressive throw downs “Body Movin'” and “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” (the runaway sing-along of the evening). A fairly generous encore segment included everything from the equally relevant “Intergalactic” to the staple “Sabotage,” both of which continued to melt the years away.

But just as the band were hitting that latter crest and revving up to hysteria, the Boys awkwardly left the stage once and for all, omitting two major singles that could’ve easily been added in place of an instrumental tune or two. As strange as it sounds, both the obligatory “Brass Monkey” and “Fight for Your Right” never surfaced, tainting what was otherwise a mostly engaging and entertainingly executed time warp through the past two decades of diversity.

— Andy Argyrakis

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly