Gigography > HistoryHome  
Gig Info:
Performance Date: 15 Febuary 1987

Country: United States
City: St. Louis, MO
Venue: Kiel Auditorium

Other Bands/Artists at the Show:

  • Fishbone
  • Murphy's Law

Notes:

Licensed to Ill Tour
 
Setlist:
Not Available
Reviews:
St Louis Post (17th February 1987)
Though Kiel Auditorium was less than half full and the stage was placed in the middle instead of at the end of the floor, the people who did attend the Beastie Boys concert Sunday night left little doubt as to their intention: They were there ready to fight for their right to party.
"Fight for Your Right," the Beasties' big hit, which has received an enormous amount of exposure on MTV in recent months, was the obvious choice to end the show on a high note. But the audience was with the rap trio right from the beginning, dancing on the chairs, shouting along on the abundant catch phrases from any number of songs included on the band's debut LP, "Licensed To Ill."
With their current status as the most played band at parties, the Beastie Boys seem to have struck a perfect chord of rapport with a large segment of today's youth, ranging from punk rockers to suburban types.
Their set, which lasted for about an hour, was a nearly endless highlight. The Beastie Boys ranged all over the stage and brought up several young women from the audience to join them. Beer cans were shaken up and the contents were showered on virtually everyone within 50 feet of the stage, but no one seemed to mind. This was a concert for fun, and fun was what everyone had.
Fishbone, the second band on the bill, was making its third St. Louis appearance in recent months.
The word from everyone who had seen their first two performances was that this band was phenomenal. The six-piece group more than lived up to this description, mixing everything from funk to ska to hard core to doo-wop to rap to rock in order to create a seamless and highly danceable individual style.
The first act, Murphy's Law, was a hard-core quartet that has improved tremendously since it's first St. Louis appearance 18 months ago. Then, the performers were stupid and inept. Now, they are just stupid.
If Fishbone displayed some disturbing sexist elements once or twice, one could ignore them and appreciate the brilliance of the rest of the music, hoping they would eventually grow out of it.
The Beastie Boys flaunted their sexist concepts - for example, they had a woman dancing in a cage on stage throughout their show - but did so with such wit and outrageousness that one could easily be convinced that they were making fun of the conventions.
But the members of Murphy's Law simply reveled in their ignorance, and offered no hint that they considered women to be human beings. On that basis, and because their music was only moderately entertaining, their set was offensive and pointless.
Media: