THE Beastie Boys, with the eagerness of three fraternity pledges, wanted to please the sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden at Saturday’s gig.
The B-Boys – Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch, Mike Diamond, were energetic and passionate about this performance that was filmed for a future DVD release.
The band was in perpetual motion during its 90-minute set that snagged tunes from every era of their long career. Yet despite the purposeful effort and the sweat equity the guys invested in this performance, the outfit’s trademark bratty playfulness was missing.
You might want to chalk it up to getting older, but considering Yauch is the band’s resident geezer at 39, Jay-Z might be right when he commented upon his retirement, that rap is a young man’s game.
At the Garden, most of the fan’s, who were as old or older than the Beasties, didn’t seem to notice; they were content to have their hip-hop heroes back on stage, in NYC, cranking out tunes.
Songs such as “Brass Monkey” from the “Paul’s Boutique” disc held its own as equals to numbers like “Ch-Check It Out” from the band’s recently released “To the 5 Boroughs” collection.
Because the Beasties have reinvented themselves over the years, and they wanted to represent all of these evolutions at the MSG concert, this performance had an edge of schizophrenia.
For example, early on, donning green and yellow Adidas running suits, the Boys dealt old-school raps. When they were in T-shirts (each embossed with the name of classic games, such as Scrabble or Mah Jongg) the guys were more likely to rock out.
As they proved years ago, when they pick up instruments and provide their own back up music the Beasties are surprisingly good musicians.
Their musical attack is tight and they are responsive to each other’s playing style.
Still rap is their strong suit. And because rap is about words and rhythm, the band should have placed more emphasis on the quality of the sound system or the ability of the sound chief. At this show there was only passable clarity in public address system’s delivery of the lyrics.
Sure, on the older numbers, the longtime fans knew the words and were able to sing along, but for much of the concert the interwoven raps of the three MCs were a sonic jumble.
Too bad, because on their records the Beastie verbal intercourse has the feel of a conversation about to break into an argument.
That audio problem won’t exist on the DVD because it was snatched directly from the soundboard. Those who buy the DVD will get to hear the disses, the jokes and the rhymes more clearly than the members of the audience.
The video work was performed by a cadre of amateur filmmakers who volunteered via the Beastie Boy Web site to wander the show, shooting with hand-held video cameras.
No doubt, this exercise in cinema verite will be a bear for some vid-whiz to edit and craft into a cohesive concert film.
However, by going deep into the crowd as the volunteers did, and capturing how the music moved the fans, the images will probably make the DVD more exciting than the show actually was.
