In 1995, when I was 14 years old, four friends and I somehow convinced our parents that it was a great idea for us to go, unsupervised, to a Beastie Boys concert. Ill Communication had recently come out, and we were so pumped to see Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA live that we got to the show hours early just to make sure we could get a good spot right in the front of general admission. We had no idea what was in store for us.
Over the next couple hours so many awesome things happened. I was introduced to a then-little-know band, The Roots, who opened the show and blew everyone away. I was front-row-center to see classics like "Sabatoge" and "So What cha' Want", performed live. I bought my first concert T-shirt. I was picked up by the crowd and forcibly crowd-surfed. I experienced my first mosh-pit. And I watched a friends nose explode in front of me, thanks to somebody jumping from the stadium seating onto us in the pit.
I remember the energy of the crowd, the haze of funny smelling smoke, and the smiles on everyone's faces. I remember the feeling of the afterglow when we met up for the ride home. We compared stories and constantly repeated to each other how amazing the night had been, as if each of us hadn't just experienced the same event. And best of all, I remember the horrified look on my parents faces when I returned home in a blood-drenched $50 T-shirt with the biggest shit-eating-grin they had ever seen plastered across my face. This was my first true concert experience. I loved it, and will never forget it.
When I first heard Adam Yauch (MCA) died today I was surprised at how sad it made me feel. It just sucks to lose such a creative and thoughtful person at just 47 years old. But now, memories of all the fun of that nights concert, and all the fun I have had since accompanied by Beastie Boy music, I feel mostly thankful. Life is short and cancer fucking sucks. But Yauch, as an individual and with his band-mates, created a lot of happiness in this world, and that is something I'm sure many of us appreciate and will always remember.
In tribute to Yauch's passing, I put together a playlist of my Top-5 favorite Beastie Boy videos. Hope you enjoy them.
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