Kick Out the Jams: The Beastie Boys at the Huntridge, June 9

When the Beastie Boys declared that we'd all have to fight for our right to party, it was hard to imagine a time when some little kid would point up at Ad-Rock or MCA and say, "Dude, that guy looks like my dad." There was too much anti-authoritarian glee in the Beasties' rhymes--a childish delight that justified every kid's curiosity about cigarettes and porno mags--to think that the Beasties would ever grow old. Ten years before the rise of pop-punk, they were the foul-mouthed Peter Pan to America's uptight Wendy, and they delivered a glimpse into a world untainted by rules or role models.

But not even the Beasties could escape the ravages of time, and after two decades and a half-dozen great albums, they look like a pair of investment bankers (Ad-Rock and MCA) and their underemployed, wannabe rave-kid friend (Mike D.). Or at least they did at their recent MTV2-sponsored show at the Huntridge, where they wore knit shirts and button downs and, in the case of Mike D., big, square sunglasses that may well have been castoffs from Elton John's show at Caesars.

Still, they're the Beastie Boys, and the Beastie Boys--to borrow Mike D.'s strangely prophetic line--"can rock a block party till your hair turns gray." While it's not clear if they actually have the power to incite premature aging in anyone but themselves, they proved that they've still got the funky flow as they plowed through jump-and-jive renditions of "Sure Shot," "Root Down," "Intergalactic," "Pass the Mic" and a few jams off their forthcoming LP To the 5 Boroughs.

And yet, there was something uncomfortable about the show, and it wasn't just the stifling heat inside the building. Call it hip hop ageism, but it's unsettling to see a gray-haired rapper outside of a Sunday afternoon screening of a bad Adam Sandler film. Of course, there's at least some small hope. People say the camera adds 10 pounds, but perhaps in the Beastie Boys' case, it will subtract 10 years.

The Beastie Boys' 2$ Bill concert at the Huntridge premieres on MTV2 on Sun., June 20, at 5 p.m.--Newt Briggs