Beastie Boys Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond hit the Kings Theatre stage in Flatbush on Tuesday night as part of their four-city “Beastie Boys Book: Live & Direct” tour to celebrate their new memoir.
The group hasn’t performed — and won’t — since the death of Adam “MCA” Yauch in 2012.
But the book bash was far from a staid Q&A.
A full two hours was filled with stories of the band, costume changes, skits and giant screens showing images and video montages as DJ Mix Master Mike provided the soundtrack.
Horovitz read from the book about the band’s first cult hit: “The idea behind our song ‘Cooky Puss’ was that we were making fun of Malcolm McLaren’s song ‘Buffalo Gals.’ That song was massive in our circle and scene.”
He added, “We liked the song. But in New York, you can’t really like anything. You know? Pizza’s all right. I mean, I’ve been having pizza since back in the day, so it’s whatever.”
The duo also appeared at Town Hall and will take their tour to LA, San Francisco and London. The 571-page tome, out from Spiegel & Grau, includes contributions from Colson Whitehead, Kate Schellenbach, Roy Choi, Amy Poehler and André Leon Talley.