Wall of Sound (4th April 2001)
Jon Bream:
Every time you ask, Beastie Boy Adam (Ad-Rock) Horovitz has a different, and silly, explanation for what the letters BS in his side project, BS 2000, stand for. "Bowling shoes … bittersweet … butterscotch … banana split," he said in a matter of seconds the other day in an interview. However, on opening night of BS 2000's first-ever U.S. tour Monday, it obviously stood for a Bit Short. Eighteen songs in 47 minutes — give or take 30 seconds.
Not that any of the b-boys and go-go girls at the Quest were complaining afterward. They knew what to expect from BS — irresistibly kitschy dance music, full of cheesy vintage keyboards and mock-pop concepts.
On record, BS 2000 is Ad-Rock and Amery "Awol" Smith, the Beasties' tour drummer and Horovitz's former punk bandmate in teenage band Young and the Useless. BS 2000 recorded a self-titled vinyl disc in 1997, and this spring they've returned with Simply Mortified, a 20-song helping of danceable cheese.
In concert, the band included three keyboardists and a drummer. Ad-Rock was the animated and talkative frontman, dancing with his left hand or his eyebrows during the music and, between songs, explaining each song's meaning — which was often slimmer than the music itself.
For instance, he pointed out that "Sick for a Reason" is about police brutality, that "The Scrappy" is about asserting your individuality in the way you dress, and that "Buddy" is about "friends being friends and friendship being friendly." Much of the time, Ad-Rock's tongue was thrust into his cheek — literally and figuratively.
BS 2000 covered the T-Bones' 1965 Alka-Seltzer jingle-turned-instrumental hit "No Matter What Shape Your Stomach Is In," which is on Simply Mortififed, and Blondie's "I Know But I Don't Know," which is not on a BS album but was a crowd favorite, complete with a Clem Burke-like drum solo. BS 2000 did a couple of tunes from its debut disc, which were more techno-like, though very low-tech. The loud and screechy "Nobody Beats BS 2000" drew big cheers.
But B(eastie) S(olo) 2000 was more about cheap dance music than punk-hop. The crowd clammered for "The Side to Side," a vintage soul groove that got people moving east to west, and they dug "Extractions," an instrumental that offered the lone musical depth of the set — but was still pure dance floor BS.

BS2000.com
DipDipDive:
Mmmkay...We arrived at the Quest sometime around 7:45 PM. The Need had already played their set and were dismantling their gear. The stagehelp was setting up for BS2000. The crowd was about a 50/50 mix of under 21/over 21. People were dressed in the typical "Look at me, I want to look like the Beastie Boys gear" I swear, what is it about people that makes them want to be someone else so bad they do everything they can to look like the person they want to be. Just for the record, I was wearing my Randy's Donuts T, blue jeans, and yes...shoes.
Anyway, the stagehands set up BS2000's gear. This consists of 2 keyboards, a drum kit, and I am guessing the infamous sp1200. They did a little soundcheck and we were off to the races. BS2000 took the stage just after 8:30 PM. Adam waved at the crowd and smiled, everyone else just walked to their area and the show began. Adam H took a keyboard, AWOL took a keyboard, Jazz took the sp1200 or whatever it was, and the big guy took the drum kit.
Adam H. did all of the talking during the show. He usually spoke in between songs. You could tell he wanted to explain the meaning of each song and drive the more political side of BS2000. He did quite a bit of talking which was kind of nice. I would have preferred even more talking and perhaps a speech or two. He mentioned how Sick For a Reason is about police brutality. Dig Deeper is about getting past that shitty MTV crap and looking for bands that influenced some of today's pop acts. You know..Dig Deeper...the crowd agreed. The Scrappy was about not being Mr. Macho Asshole guy. "Throw your chain wallet away" Adam mentioned how you don't need a goatee, even though it is perfectly fine to have a goatee, you just don't need one to look hard. One song was about sexism and how the ladies need to get more respect as musicians and people. He also explains the Side to Side. this song was one of the highlights. They want people to dance. We all got our groove on and had a great time on this song and most of the lighter dancier songs.
The crowd seemed to be pretty into it overall. We stood to the left side of the stage so we could see better. The sound wasn't too loud and wasn't the greatest either. Oh well. Not a big light show either. They pretty much just had a couple of red lights shining on the band. I did not get any pictures but I did notice flashes popping once in a while. The show was very Lo-Fi.
If you are looking for a set list, you are reading the wrong review. BS2000 has many, many short songs and it is difficult to remember all of them and which order. They played most of the songs from Simply Mortified and maybe two or so songs from their first record. They did a cover of a Blondie song and played two or so songs that I did not recognize. All of the songs were performed very similar to the CD. Not much variation or jamming out. Pretty cut and dry. Would have been nice to see a little freestylin' with the casio's. In fact, just before they played Wait a Minute, (their final song) Adam said, "This is our last song, we would play more songs but we don't anymore." the crowd seemed a little bummed out. He said, "We could just jam out and stuff." The crowd cheered, but they broke into Wait a Minute, finished, and left the stage. The crowd screamed and cheered for about 5 minutes or so and they turned up the lights. ***NO ENCORE*** Grrrrr... Yeah that's right, no encore. People seemed kind of bummed. I even walked over to the curtain where I could see Adam smoking a cigarette and sipping a bottle of beer. I yelled, "Play the Mom Song" and someone yelled back but I couldn't hear what they said. We waited for 10 minutes or so until the security made us walk away. No response from BS2000. In the hopes that they just might come out and play a few more songs we waited around for a few more minutes. I bought an official copy of Simply Mortified since I had Napstered my previous copy. They give you a free poster with the purchase of the cd. Pretty cool poster, and well worth the price. I suggest picking one up if you go to a show. I tried to get some extra posters but the guy selling the cds was just not having it. He wouldn't even sell me an extra. Oh well. There were two kinds T-Shirts and stuff but nothing too exciting. We walked out of the building and that was it.
To sum it all up, I would have to say that YES, I had a good time, BS2000 kicks ass....BUT I wish they played a little longer, jammed out, played more covers, talked more, I don't know, it needed a little more energy or something. A little more hot sauce to really get the crowd to shake their shit. Hey, I'm trying to be objective here. Also, it did seem a bit on the short side. They were only onstage for maybe 45 minutes or so. Don't expect a long show. I didn't buy the excuse of them not knowing any more songs. They didn't even play all of the songs from Simply Mortified. I really wanted to hear The Mom Song...Oh well, I can't complain too much, the tickets were only 10 bucks right? Perhaps I hyped it up a bit too much in my head. It was a very intimate show and something that does not come around too often so they definately scored points there. Don't call me Mr. Critic, but I give this one 3 out of 4 stars.