Watch the Beastie Boys’ final-ever concert
On June 12th, 2009, the Beastie Boys performed a headline gig at Bonnaroo Festival. It would end up being their last concert before Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch was diagnosed with cancer. Five weeks after the phenomenal performance, Yauch confirmed that he had been diagnosed with salivary gland cancer and would no longer be able to perform as part of the group.
In a statement released at the time, Yauch said: “I just need to take a little time to get this in check, and then we’ll release the record and play some shows. It’s a pain in the neck (sorry had to say it) because I was really looking forward to playing these shows, but the doctors have made it clear that this is not the kind of thing that can be put aside to deal with later.”
The cancer proved far more aggressive than anyone had thought, taking Adam’s life in May 2012, less than three years after the diagnosis. The group’s concert at Bonnaroo remains a testament to the brilliance of MCA and the strength of the Beastie Boys as a unit. The 90-minute appearance saw the group deliver a career-spanning set covering everything from Ill Communication to Check Your Head and Hello Nasty. Midway through the set, Nas arrived onstage to perform a rendition of ‘Too Many Rappers’ from the Beastie Boy’s then-forthcoming LP Hot Sauce Committee, which was eventually released in 2011, a year after Adam’s passing.
Beastie Boys ushered in the performance with ‘The Biz vs. The Nuge’, followed by ‘Time for Livin’, ‘Super Disco Breakin’, Sure Shot’, and the brilliant ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’. After Nas’ appearance for ‘Too Many Rappers’, MCA, Mike D and Ad-Rock launched into a remix of ‘Paul Revere’ from their 1986 self-titled debut before closing the set with an encore comprised of ‘Intergalactic’, ‘Three MCs and One DJ’, an acoustic rendition of Heart Attack Man’ by Country Mike, and ‘Sabotage’.
Following Yauch’s death at the age of 47, Mike D explained that Beastie Boys would be disbanding, though he didn’t write off the possibility of new music by him and Ad-Rock. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Mike said: “Yauch would genuinely want us to try whatever crazy thing we wanted but never got around to”.
Then, in 2014, Mike D revealed that he and Ad-Rock were working on music under the Beastie Boys’ name once again. Unsurprisingly, things were never quite the same. If you’ve forgotten what it was that made the trio such a powerful force of nature, make sure you check out their final rendition of ‘Paul Revere’ below.
