Nearly 20 years after the last Beastie Boys concert, the group’s Mike D is mounting his first solo tour this summer, backed by a group called 5D, which includes his sons Skyler and Davis Diamond, as well as Eddie Ruscha, Will Graefe, and Milo Ruscha. The five-gig run, all scattershot across the Eastern U.S., coincides with the Aug. 28 release of his first solo album, Thank You.
The tour kicks off on Aug. 30 in Boston and includes dates in Washington, D.C.; Asheville, North Carolina; Atlanta; and one of New York City’s boroughs. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Eastern on Friday, with presales beginning Thursday. Ticketing info is on the Mike D 5D website.
Thank You features 10 songs, including “What We Got,” a heavy psychedelic rocker, pierced by Mike D’s inimitable rapping. Other tunes include the jazzy, more laid-back “Switch Up” and “True Colors,” a trippy mélange of breakbeats, analog synths, and ethereal vocals that change direction toward the end.
The artist performed some of the songs live in May at a gay dive bar in Los Angeles. “The show closed out with ‘Thank You,’ the … reverb-drenched ballad, followed by the finale in the form of the second Beasties song of the night: the classic ‘So What’cha Want,’ with Mike D serving up the rhymes previously rapped back and forth between the members of his sadly defunct band,” a Rolling Stone review reported. “Rather than a bummer trip, though, it was a passionate call to arms, with band members playing instruments behind their heads and Mike D holding the microphone out to the audience for some call-and-response action.” Mike D has since played tour dates in the U.K. and mainland Europe.
Mike D Tour Dates
Aug. 30 – Boston, MA @ Royale
Sept. 1 – Washington, D.C. @ 930 Club
Sept. 3 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
Sept. 5 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
Sept. 9 – Queens, NY @ Knockdown Center
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