dee_bee_76
06-14-2004, 04:34 PM
Beasties keep rocking the mike at BFD
Neva Chonin, Chronicle Pop Music Critic
Monday, June 14, 2004
Two years ago, at Live 105's BFD summer festival, the Strokes played a desolate afternoon set to a half-empty Shoreline Amphitheatre. This year, they headlined over the Beastie Boys. What a difference two years makes.
Or does it? The Beastie Boys enjoyed the largest and most enthusiastic crowd, sending close to 15,000 concertgoers into a frenzy of call-and-response chanting. By the time the Strokes hit the stage at 10:15 p.m., some people were already heading for the exits, and by the time they finished their set 45 minutes later, empty seats peppered the venue.
After a DJ intro by Mixmaster Mike, the Beastie Boys started their set with two "Ill Communication"-era songs, "Root Down" and "Sure Shot." From there they moved into material from their latest album, "To the 5 Boroughs" --including "That's It That's All," with its rhyming denunciation of the Bush administration: "That's it that's all George W.'s got nothing on we/We got to take the power from he."
Throughout the set, past favorites ("Body Movin' ", "Three MCs and One DJ") bounced off of new tracks ("Ch-Check It Out") as Beasties Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock), Adam Yauch (MCA) and Mike Diamond (Mike D) traded tag-team raps and proved their time off hasn't dulled their ability to work a crowd. No other hip-hop crew or rock band combines politics and surreal goofing so seamlessly, and the trio's 40-minute performance was the day's critical and crowd highlight.
Neva Chonin, Chronicle Pop Music Critic
Monday, June 14, 2004
Two years ago, at Live 105's BFD summer festival, the Strokes played a desolate afternoon set to a half-empty Shoreline Amphitheatre. This year, they headlined over the Beastie Boys. What a difference two years makes.
Or does it? The Beastie Boys enjoyed the largest and most enthusiastic crowd, sending close to 15,000 concertgoers into a frenzy of call-and-response chanting. By the time the Strokes hit the stage at 10:15 p.m., some people were already heading for the exits, and by the time they finished their set 45 minutes later, empty seats peppered the venue.
After a DJ intro by Mixmaster Mike, the Beastie Boys started their set with two "Ill Communication"-era songs, "Root Down" and "Sure Shot." From there they moved into material from their latest album, "To the 5 Boroughs" --including "That's It That's All," with its rhyming denunciation of the Bush administration: "That's it that's all George W.'s got nothing on we/We got to take the power from he."
Throughout the set, past favorites ("Body Movin' ", "Three MCs and One DJ") bounced off of new tracks ("Ch-Check It Out") as Beasties Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock), Adam Yauch (MCA) and Mike Diamond (Mike D) traded tag-team raps and proved their time off hasn't dulled their ability to work a crowd. No other hip-hop crew or rock band combines politics and surreal goofing so seamlessly, and the trio's 40-minute performance was the day's critical and crowd highlight.