Features

The Beastie Boys: All Growns Up (Relix Revisited)

If The Mix-Up offered the group a chance to mellow and kick out the jams—or funk—it’s also inspired a significant change in how it tours, one that compliments its members’ lives as fortysomethings. To support the disc, the Beasties played a pair of shows in the bigger U.S. cities, with one night dedicated to a mix of hip-hop, punk and funk, and the other to instrumentals. Here’s the wholly Beastie Boys twist: For the latter shows, dubbed “gala events”—after a track on the new record—the band asked fans to dress appropriately—no jeans, sneakers and especially no cargo shorts.

Of course, some have obliged, and some haven’t. The Hammerstein gig was one such gala event, where a few hundred among the thousands showed up in ties, jackets, loafers and cheeky tuxedo t-shirts. There were even a few dozen women in ballroom dresses and heels.

“The gala event and the regular show are two different kinds of shows and two different audiences,” says Mike D. “We get this nice, shared experience at the gala event, where the people who are coming really want to hear us play stuff we’ve never played before, or don’t usually play. Those shows are for the heads, the regular shows are for the peeps.”

“Doing the shows with more hip-hop in ‘em,” says Yauch, “reminds you of the energy of doing that show: You have to think about which songs you like playing and which lyrics you like saying, so it puts you in the right frame of mind for writing for the next record”—and by the time you read this they will most likely have already begun initial work on that disc, he says—“Doing the gala events just gets you just in the mind of playing.”

By stopping for two nights in cities like Boston and Chicago, touring has become less of a grind, and more welcoming to their families. All three of the Beastie Boys are married. Mike D has two sons, while Yauch has a daughter, who occasionally travels with the band. With a laughs, he notes that on their recent European tour, she had more fun hanging out with the crew than traveling or even watching her dad perform.

“It’s definitely a little different,” he says. “When we were 18, 20 years old, we were going out to clubs every night and getting wrecked, but I’m definitely enjoying having the family life, and spending time with my daughter, and my wife, I’m happy with where I’m at. I’m not longing to be going out to a club and getting wasted till 6 in the morning.”

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If more than a decade ago, the Beastie Boys were caught a little off guard by the appearance of VW microbuses and Deadheads in the parking lots before their shows, these days they’re well aware of the fact that they’ve made inroads in the jamband scene—and that an album like The Mix-Up and gigs like the gala events will only further endear them to Birkenstock set (the band’s earlier all-instrumental effort, The In Sound from Way Out! (1996), was perhaps the first true connection to the scene minus a few pot smoking references on earlier albums).

“We got some numbers in our show that might make them happy,” Mike D said backstage at the Hammerstein. “For instance, ‘Shambala.’ There’s a lot of songs. I realize there’s compatibility and incompatibility in terms of the set lists. But the dress code, I don’t know how that’s gonna go over,” he quips, painting grins across the faces of MCA and Ad Rock.

MCA: We’re definitely more into groove-oriented shit than, like, wailing.

Ad Rock: The Dead had two drummers, but they didn’t utilize them in a funky way.

Mike D: Yeah, I feel like, “Where were the beats?” I know there was a lot of drumming, but where were the beats? Where were the butt-naked, raw, funky beats?

Ad Rock: It’s weird to have two drummers and no beats. No what I’m saying?

Mike D: On another note, James Brown had two drummers yet he never had them play at the same time, because his whole thing was that he would wear-out the band. One band would have to stop, and the next band would have to kick in. Was it two bands or two rhythm sections? I’m not sure, but that was his whole thing: He would just drain ‘em.

MCA: But the Dead had nice vocal harmonies.

Ad Rock: Yeah, I’m not mad at the Dead, the Dead had songs.

MCA: They have a certain feel to their shit.