Beastie Boys' Mike D Makes History at Portola Festival 2026

There was a good reason to be curious about Mike D's name on the Portola bill beyond the obvious Beastie Boys connection. His new project, Mike D 5D, brings that familiar voice into a band making restless, distorted music of its own. In the Ship Tent on Saturday, the appeal was hearing how readily the old material could sit inside that new setting. The recognizable songs gave the set a history; the new ones gave it somewhere to go.

Thank You, released in August, is Mike Diamond's debut solo album, made with collaborators including his sons Skyler and Davis. Both are part of the touring group, alongside Eddie Ruscha, Will Graefe and Milo Ruscha. The new project has his same appetite for collision, with electronic rhythms and abrasive textures pressing against his sharply identifiable delivery.

The set opened with “Hello Brooklyn” and moved into “What We Got,” establishing the relationship between the two catalogs early. “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun” and “3-Minute Rule” appeared among newer songs including “Crypto,” “Make It Stop” and “Switch Up.” The selection reached beyond a quick run through the most obvious Beastie Boys hits. 

The newer material is important to the character of 5D. Its clipped rhythms and rough surfaces give Diamond something to push against, and the music retains a degree of scrappiness that feels welcome on a festival bill full of immaculate electronic production. There is pleasure in hearing a recognizable voice in a setting that has yet to settle into a fixed formula. 

A festival appearance by a Beastie Boy inevitably carries expectations. Mike D 5D offered a convincing way to accommodate them while giving new work a hearing. The songs people knew were still there, but so was an artist willing to put his voice in unfamiliar company. That curiosity made this one of Saturday's more interesting bookings.