Renowned American hip hop DJ and Beastie Boys contributing member, Mix Master Mike, spins the turntables at Haoman 17 on November 12.
By ELANA KIRSHMix Master Mike 311(photo credit: Courtesy)
Mix Master Mike’s gig had everything going for it: A high-profile master hip hop turntablist on a Friday night in Tel Aviv with an “Israel get ready tonight” tweet on his twitter feed, a good crowd, fitting venue and a perfectly placed camera to show off the Beastie Boys DJ’s formidable skills on the wheels of steel. And yet somehow, the gig didn’t quite hit the spot.The audience was of a good mixed age, with far more males than females, dressed in casual, down-to-earth clothes, and not too drunk or rowdy. However this may have had something to do with the fact that the drinks were horribly overpriced, and some overzealous smoke-machine operation made moving around the packed club fairly difficult.The support acts, made up of Israeli DJs Barak Wiess, Mesh, Ori Shochat, Alarm and Ortega, played for three hours, running over 40 minutes past Mix Master Mike’s scheduled start-time. That aside, they put on a decent show, slowly but surely luring the club too its feet to welcome the main act.The hip hop master made his way up to the decks just after 2 a.m. in a Giants Tshirt, opening with The Prodigy classic, “Breathe.” Though the bass was far too strong, it was a good choice for the Israeli crowd, who yelled and whistled their appreciation.And yet somehow from that track on, the 40-year-old four-time DMC champion made noble efforts but largely failed to keep the crowd moving, zipping through samples from ACDC’s “Highway to Hell” to The Chemical Brother’s “Galvanize”, waiting till after the seventh track to drop The Beastie Boy’s 1998 hit “Intergalactic”. To be fair, between some oddly-placed dub and hard trance stints, the crowd did get going to some impressive turntabling, and mixes of funk hit “For the Love of Money”, 2pac’s “California Love”, Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and Mix Master Mike favorite, Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name.”In short, while no one was standing around bored, and the hardcore hip hop fans got a chance to see a major artist up close, the gig failed to do justice to Mix Master Mike’s impressive DJ history, and instead of being a night to remember, ended up as a fun night out at a Tel Aviv club.
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