The Charge

Tricky!

The Case

In 2001, the pioneering hip-hop trio Run DMC performed live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Run, DMC and Jam Master Jay performed to an exuberant Swiss crowd of white folks, who hungrily lapped it all up. The Jazz Festival is renowned for bringing heavy-hitters to the stage and the legendary rap trio did their thing, rocking all their major hits and interacting with the audience. These guys know how to put on a good show.

Now I have to admit the rampant popularity of Run DMC peaked before my time, so I'm not a hardcore fan. But listening to this live performance clued me into a pile of songs that I had of course heard at one point in my life and can now give Run and his crew the cred. Here's the set list of the concert:

"It's Like That"
"It's Tricky"
Medley: "Rock Box/ Sucker MC's/ Freestyle/ Here We Go/ Beats to the Rhyme"
"King of Rock"
"Mary Mary"
"Walk This Way"
"School of Old"
"It's Over"
"Run's Freestyle"
"Peter Piper"
"Down with the King"
"Got to be Real"

Obviously there are a lot of big songs in there, notably the heavily-sampled "Mary Mary" (from the old Monkees song) and "Walk This Way," the hugely popular cover of Aerosmith's mega-hit. The guys bring a ton of energy and enthusiasm to their performances, from Jam Master Jay scratching and pumping up the audience to Run and DMC bellowing out their beats and vocals as if it were the early '80s, and the boys take it a step further with their proud Adidas wardrobes.

In between songs, the two MCs interact heavily with the crowd, drawing them into the songs, and engaging in games where the winners walk away with autographed shirts and hats. Again, these guys know how to put on a good show.

It's well-known that Run DMC pioneered much of hip hop culture, but I was struck by how much of a rock influence could be found in their songs. Run DMC don't just spout of rhymes, but blast them out, jumping around, screaming into the mic and, really, rocking out. It's not a far leap to see the all-the-rage rap-metal hybrid bands cribbing from these dudes.

So though in 2001 the trio were getting up in age (DMC kind of looks like a soccer coach), they still have much juice and get the crowd of Swiss folks on their feets, waving their hands and shouting like they just don't care.

Eagle Rock focused on the sound for the disc and it shows, with a DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo track available for you to rock your system with. Video is in full frame and save for a nice summary of the group's history in the liner notes, there are no extras.

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