The Beastie Boys

At Metropolis in

Montreal on Wednesday

The suits were out in full force. So were the fake moustaches, sunglasses, skinny ties and fedoras. The Beastie Boys had spoken and 2,300 Montreal fans answered their call, dressing to the nines for this intimate instrumental club date on the night preceding the band's Bell Centre arena show.

With this "dress to impress" appeal voiced on their website, during interviews and even printed on ticket stubs, these New York hip-hop legends - now all in their 40s - clearly wanted to make this a special event for band and audience alike; to differentiate this series of gigs from big-stadium throw-downs.

Weird? Maybe. But also cool. The Beastie Boys, who play in Toronto tonight, have been taking musical risks since 1986's Licensed to Ill. (They're also known for social and political activism; they're currently touring on a bio-diesel bus and the Sierra Club has a booth at all shows.) And this is hardly their first foray into the land of unplugged; previous albums such as Check Your Head and Ill Communication featured instrumental tracks that were rereleased on the 1996 compilation The In Sound From Way Out!

Still, could a band synonymous with two decades of boundary-erasing MC-ing, lyricism and sampling pull off a reinvention? The answer: Yeah! With Adam Yauch (MCA) on bass, Mike Diamond (Mike D) on drums and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) on guitar, the Beastie Boys transformed the sweaty Metropolis club into a jam-heavy funk-fest. Even hardcore hip-hop kids were grooving in their zoot-suits to renditions of Beastie Boys classics, B-sides and new material from the band's recent instrumental album, The Mix-Up.

Wearing snazzy suits and shades, and accompanied onstage by DJ Mix Master Mike, keyboardist Mark Nishita (Money Mark) and percussionist Alfredo Ortiz, the band channelled an authentic 1930s jazz club vibe. A few of the weaker songs sounded a little like seventies porn soundtrack versions of their predecessors, but for the most part, the spectacle was incredibly interesting - not just culturally, but musically.

This was the real deal, and as such the Beastie Boys wanted to be taken seriously. "Uh, maybe you didn't get the memo," Horowitz said politely to a fellow who at one point was crowd-surfing, mosh-pit style, in front of the stage. "This is, like, a different type of show we're trying. So maybe you should try out some different dance steps. You don't need to climb onto everybody's head."

He was asking us to listen. And listen we did. Maybe it was the fancy outfits and the impressive musicianship, but people were paying attention, dancing, waving their hands in the air upon command.

The crowd loved the jam-filled new track, Off the Grid. Even better, for hits like Remote Control and the last song of the night, Sabotage, Diamond leaped from behind the drum kit and grabbed the microphone - jumping up and down like a sharp-dressed grasshopper half his age. Two encores later, we were still dancing.

Making good music means taking risks. And this party proves the Beastie Boys remain ahead of their time, while having a great time.