Beastie Boys Heap On The Nostalgia

When you grow up in a smaller city, your concert-going options are fairly limited. Kingston, Ontario was worse than most because, when I was a teenager, there wasn't anybody in town booking cool indie acts. So if you wanted to see something interesting, you usually had to go to Montreal or Toronto. As a result, seeing the Beastie Boys play in the round at the Bell Centre in 1998 was a very big deal to me. It was one of the first few shows I saw that made me realize that live music was kind of an important thing and I should see more of it. So it was that roughly 400 to 500 shows and 1,000 bands later, I finally caught up with the legendary hip-hop trio last Friday. And wouldn't you know it — not much has changed at all.

That specifically goes for the set list. With maybe about a dozen exceptions in the 30-song set, most of what was played was the same. Hearing "Super Disco Breakin'," "Sure Shot" and "Root Down" was enough to put a smile on my face, but it's far from what I'd call jaw-droppingly exciting at this point. There were a few inconsistencies in the Beasties' set that dragged down the enjoyment factor.

First, they played two sets of instrumental material. I realize that the trio are getting older and need to spice things up a bit, but isn't that why they scheduled the all-instrumental night at the Sony Centre the following night? The problem is that they pulled the atmosphere up so high with their usual material and then dragged it beneath the hockey rink with the extended bouts of wanktastic Mix-Up material. It was pretty tepid stuff, and the lukewarm response from the surprisingly sparse crowd said it all.

Second, what the fuck is up with Adam Yauch? There's a guy who looks like he could care less about the proceedings at this point. The artist formerly known as MCA sauntered around the back of the stage muttering into his mic whenever it was his turn, often stumbling on the lyrics halfway through a verse, only to have Ad-Rock or Mike D pick up the slack. When the three came to the front of the stage for their typical "Three MCs And One DJ" formation, he literally fell over on one of the monitors. Effortless cool, which Yauch usually has, is one thing. Being lazy is something else entirely. This seemed like laziness, almost drunkenness.

Luckily, the other two Beasties more than compensated. Everyone seems to default to Adam Horovitz as their favourite in the band, but nobody remembers what an insanely great performer Mike Diamond is. He spent the night bouncing around the stage like his long legs were pogo sticks. While his squeaky octave has dropped in the past few years, his vibrant energy hasn't. Nothing he did onstage felt forced, which is saying a lot for a guy in his 40s. I even bought his doing encore track "Egg Raid On Mojo," which is odd because I don't think anybody else who looks as weathered as Diamond could actually make it seem natural. Equally weird was hearing Ad-Rock sing "I'm that kid in the corner" — it couldn't be further from the truth, but it kind of sounded great regardless.

The encore also featured its usual wait-'til-the-end numbers, "Intergalactic" and "Sabotage," and both of them were as fun as they'd ever been. But here's the big difference between Beastie Boys now and Beastie Boys nine years ago: When the latter was played to close the show in Montreal, the intensity was at such a fever pitch that kids literally lost control of themselves. Sixty or so sprinted from the Bell Centre seats to the floor where they fought security and got dragged out for their right to party. On this night, with the exception of about 25 idiots moshing like they were at a Lamb Of God concert, everybody politely rocked out knowing that this was a fun and likely fitting end to a band they all grew up with. I don't think MCA's going to go much further with the group and seeing just two of them would be a travesty. This was nice, but that's all. Better to end things now before it gets truly embarrassing. Sadly, I doubt it will go down that way.