Awesome: I…Shot That

An unusual concert film, Awesome is a fan-based record of a Beastie Boys concert staged in New York City's Madison Square Garden in October 2004. The trio's creative team handed out 50 camcorders to volunteers in the audience, with the mandate that they had to keep shooting, resulting in a performance captured by amateurs who happen to love the group. While the raw, rough images are certainly novel, the real accomplishment lies in the editing of all that crude footage into something with a sense of rhythm behind it. For the most part, each of the 26 raps and songs served up here are distinguished by manic cutting and added effects: “An Open Letter to NYC," for instance, is drained of color and tweaked in post-production with time delays within the action; "So What'cha Want" is occasionally solarized (i.e., “negative” images); "Brass Monkey" is a rap-a-long focusing primarily on the audience, and "Root Down" is largely shot looking up from the edge of the stage. The whole shebang culminates in a noisy "Sabotage," one of the Beasties' biggest hits. Presented in bass-thumping Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo, DVD extras include a “making-of” featurette and audio commentary by the band. Recommended. Aud: P. (T. Keogh)