Mike 5D
Union Transfer
1026 Spring Garden St.
Philadelphia
Oct. 19, 2026
When Adam Nathaniel Yauch (aka MCA) died of cancer in Spring of 2012, fans and critics alike questioned whether the Beastie Boys would continue making music without him. The group’s surviving members, Adam Horowitz (Ad Rock) and Michael Diamond (Mike D) quickly put the question to rest. Without Yauch, there would be no new Beastie Boys music or tours. For a time it seemed that Yauch’s physical death had signaled the creative death of one of rap’s greatest groups. Nearly 14 years to the day after Yauch’s death, Diamond stepped back into the field with the surprise release of a new single, the quirky, drum n’ bass-infused jam “Switch Up.” Co-produced by his sons Skyler and Davis Diamond and Carter Lang, "Switch Up” sounded nothing like classic era Beastie Boys, but it did harken back to the playful electronic experimentation of songs like “And Me” from 1998’s Hello Nasty. Diamond’s new album, Thank You, continues to color outside the sonic lines with shifting beats and trippy, delay and distortion-soaked vocals. At first, the most glaring absence from Thank You — the intricate vocal interplay that defined the Beastie Boys — is evident. Despite this, the record’s fun, kitchen sink approach of arrangement and production takes your mind off of what’s not there. Ultimately, Thank You is a busy, fearless record that doesn’t contend with the legacy of Diamond’s old band as much as it adds to his own. On Oct. 19, an army of Beastie faithfuls packed Union Transfer to see him pull it all off live.
Following a delightful opening set from singer-songwriter Angelnumber 8, the crowd waited for Diamond and crew while a bass-heavy mix of electro, drum and bass and bub beats blasted the house speakers. After making a short introduction, Mike D and his band launched into a gnarly version of the Beastie’s classic “Hello Brooklyn.” Next, “What We Got” came in hard with its snarling bass and thunderous drum beat. Similar to classic Beastie Boys cuts like “So What Cha Want,” Diamond’s vocals throughout the set were processed through an unrelenting wall of distortion and delay, giving the songs a rough but otherworldly texture. Alternating between songs from Thank You and well-known Beastie Boys songs, the band launched into the slow-burning funk-rock cut “Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun.” From there “I Don’t Care” completely shifted the raucous mood onstage. An introspective indie-rock meets dub anthem, Diamond’s lyrics are about giving up the fruitless pattern of people-pleasing and self-sacrifice. To their credit, the audience seemed to embrace Diamond’s new and unfamiliar music. With their 40-year-old catalog, the Beastie Boys were an integral part to many of our childhoods and it would’ve been easy for the crowd to reject the Thank You songs. Instead, everyone listened enthusiastically to the new material and sang along to the old familiars. While we may not be getting any new music under the Beastie Boys banner, I’m grateful that we are getting something new that was produced with the same boundlessly creative spirit.
