Beck at Radio City Music Hall, 2/14/00, photo by Winston Smith, © 2000 NY Rock

At Radio City Music Hall, February 14, 2000, Beck provided the punch. He also pushed the limits of sonic funk like a preacher spewing forth the rock gospel to the converted, hungry for salvation and solutions in an age of digital personalities, fifteen-minute fame and chat rooms. Taking on the gloried hall like a renegade cosmic guerilla, Beck exorcised Gen X's demons against a backdrop of oversized hoses, tubes and aluminum foil that looked like the remains from the set of "Lost in Space."

Beck at Radio City Music Hall, 2/14/00, photo by Winston Smith, © 2000 NY Rock

Disregarding the studio chicanery found on Midnight Vultures in favor of a 100-percent pure and unadulterated funk sound, Beck cut to the core of the new album. He offered up a variety of styles and song, most notably from 1996's Odelay and added depth to tunes from Mutations and Mellow Gold with a full blown horn section, backup singers and a motley crew of musicians dressed like scrubs from a local football league.

Offering up the sincere to the ridiculous, on "Debra," Beck wooed the crowd like a Prince or Barry White clone as a velvety red king-sized bed descended from the hall's rafters. Combining the likes of a dog in heat with the falsetto highs of Barry Gibb, Beck gave the sublime, countering: "We're not trying to be ironic; we're just from the Midwest."

The unplugged and bare "Jackass" and "One Foot in the Grave" provided the evening's retro-roots flare. "Devil's Haircut" was the closer and had Beck pacing like a zombie offstage with an array of guitar stands and other metallic debris dangling over his head and shoulders like the king's crown.

By giving the slacker nation a cool place to hang their scarred egos, Beck has become an anti-counterculture hero of sorts. In doing so, he has also turned the corn-fed masses on to an American legacy of folk and funk, all at the risk of self-parody.

February 2000