Philzone.org Discussion Board: Archive 2004: Non-PF/Dead Show Reviews Archive 2004: Beastie Boys - Worcester Centrum 10/12/04

Satisfied my guilty pleasure.

Very mellow, under-attended show. Mostly 20-somethings - LOTS of GORGEOUS babe's - not hippy types but "normal" - a LIFETIME of jackoff material to add to the "memory bank" - shoulda brought my cellphone camera!

On to the show: First opening act was a DOG SHOW!!!! - yes a bunch of mutts doing tricks - jumping thru hoops, riding barrels, etc - to corny pipe organ music by some old dude in a tuxeedo - very weird! Thankfully only 20 min's or so.

2nd opening act was a real (ie, black) rap act - 2 dudes and a turtablist - lots of political stuff - apparently they have a "hit single" right now - no way I'd know it - first time I've seen stuff like this live - oh and the audience was 99.9% white - now I've listened to black rappers before and dug it - especially heard some really cool stuff on college radio - rap w/jazz samples - wish I knew who it was - ok that act was on for about 45 min's

Beasties took the stage @ 9:45 - just the 3 of them rapping plus the turntablist - I mostly know their early '90's stuff (Ill Communication/License to Ill) - didn't do anything I recognized except "Whatcha Want" (probably not the real title but it's what I sing/rap to the cats/dog when they're crying for attention at home) - then about 30 min's in the turntablist does a solo - kinda like GD drums/space - pretty good sound - deep if a tad on the loud side - then they roll out a gazebo framed in lights with the beasties on the stage dressed in tuxedo's playing real instruments and they do a bunch of those instrumental breaks from those early '90's releases - the highlight of the show for me but bores the hell outta everyone else - the babbling jerks behind me spill a WHOLE beer on me so I gotta move a few rows back - luckily plenty of empty seats in the risers straight back (same place I saw the GD from in Oct '83 when the Centrum first opened) - they do 2 other early '90's numbers I really like - can't recall names right now - then another set change to go back to rapping - during the set change they show candid footage shot outside before the show - fans saying where they came from and what tunes they wanna hear - then shots of the stage being set up - good stuff - then a few more recognizable tunes - Radioactive, some NYC thing -the backgrounds are funny - some outtakes of tv commercials, stunts gone wrong, footage from vintage '80's arcade games, again funny stuff - then for the encore they're back as a band - 2 tunes I didn't recognize then SABOTAGE!!!! - finally a mosh pit breaks out on the GA floor! 10:50 - That's it - they were on stage for 95 min's - about 1/3 was as a band, 2/3 rapping - they certainly didn't do a lot of popular/famous stuff - again I don't know their 2 most recent releases and never really liked Paul's Boutique even tho most fans consider that their best release - oh a lot of the new stuff had blatant political stuff - good to see them angry and motivated - again if I were to compare them to KISS, I'd say they're WAY more relevant and say a lot more to me than Kiss EVER would despite me being totally of the KISS generation (age 15 in 1975) than the Beasties. May go see them again @ Nassau Col in Nov but I doubt I'd follow the tour trying to catch the killer "Finger Lickin' Good"!

Thanks for the review. I heard they're doing lot's of stuff from Paul's Boutique on this tour, that's hand's down their best album in my opinion. The opening act out west was Talib Kweli.