Singapore Good Vibrations Festival review

The Beastie Boys' appearance at the Good Vibrations Festival did not yield many professional media reviews or reports, except for the following one from The Straits Times (Singapore).

February 21, 2007

Sexy Beastie
By Yong Shu Hoong

GOOD VIBRATIONS FESTIVAL 2007
Fort Canning Park

Now, who says white men can't rap? Before the rise of white rapper Eminem, New York-based Jewish rap group Beastie Boys have, since the early 1980s, been churning out their unique wordplay infused with hip-hop, punk and retro funk.

Pushing into their late 30s and early 40s, the vivacious trio were eager to please as the headlining act of Good Vibrations Festival.

Backed by turntablist Mix Master Mike and keyboardist Money Mark, Beastie Boys emerged onstage at 12.30am, dressed in corporate suits which got ruffled up as the night wound down.

They played a mostly greatest-hits repertoire, with familiar numbers like Root Down, Sure Shot and Shake Your Rump. Some momentum was lost, however, when they threw two instrumentals into the mix, with some awkward pauses between songs.

But the crowd was left wanting more when the group polished off the main set with dance tracks like Brass Monkey, So What'cha Want, Ch-Check It Out and No Sleep Till Brooklyn.

For the encore at around 1.20am, they gladly obliged with Intergalactic, before thanking the Singapore audience and organiser for a 'fun time' and promptly launched into the final number, Sabotage, cheekily dedicated to United States President George W. Bush.

Jurassic 5, on the other hand, is a Los Angeles all-black rap group steeped in old-school hip-hop.

They delivered a competent 40-minute set that included Red Hot, a single off their 2006 album Feedback, as well as older tracks like Concrete Schoolyard and I Am Somebody. But one never got past the feeling that they were nothing more than a stage warmer for the main event.

Split between the Good Vibrations main stage and the smaller Chinese Laundry dance area, the festival, which eventually drew 8,000 people, also featured Singapore's Close Apart, Electrico and Wicked Aura Batucada, Australia's Cut Copy and Malaysia's Too Phat, as well as DJs like Mad Mats (Sweden) and DJ Dan (USA).