Beck Suprises Toronto With Secret Show

Halloween came early for Canadians last night when Beck and his band of merry, wig-wearing mates descended on Toronto's Drake Hotel to play a secret midnight show following their Ricoh Coliseum gig. The vibe was frat-party meets alterna-hoedown: Beck and crew downed shots and beer to fuel the lead song "Scarecrow." The bassist announced, "We're gonna try and play some stuff we don't normally get to play," and the band proceeded to cut loose with joyously sloppy versions of "Diamond Bollocks," "We Dance Alone," "Black Tambourine," and a mash-up of David Bowie's "Fame" and Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." Beck seemed content to sit back and let his increasingly inebriated bandmates entertain the crowd, looking on in amusement as keyboardist/guitarist Brian Lebarton (who insisted on being called "Cameron" all night) stripped off his shirt and repeatedly tumbled into the stage curtains.

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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