Wish I'd Seen 'Em #9 - Adam Yauch

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Wish I'd Seen 'Em. It's a musical series about musicians that I wish I'd seen in concert, because they are now deceased. We are at #9: Adam Yauch (1964-2012.) "Adam Whosis?", you might be asking right about now. You can be forgiven. You better know Adam Yauch as "MCA," vocalist and bassist for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hip hop group, the Beastie Boys. And just who didn't love the Beastie Boys? Apparently, no one, judging by just how insanely popular the hip hop trio was. I mean, it was seriously impossible to get tickets to see them in concert during their heyday, without paying an arm and a leg and whatever else the ticket scalper wanted. I have a friend whose ex claims the Beasties as her favorite band. He paid those appendages so that she could see the guys play Red Rocks. I could just never swing it. (Hell, even the group's magazine, Grand Royal, was tough to acquire. A former coworker of mine used to sneak out of work early on the days that the new issue hit the magazine rack at the local Denver record store that carried it. We probably worked two, possibly three miles away at best. Sometimes, he still didn't get there in time.) I still remember the day that Adam lost his fight against cancer. We were living in Manitou Springs, and our favorite Manitou dive bar has the Beastie Boys' album, Paul's Boutique, on the jukebox. I walked down to the bar, played the entire CD, and drank a couple of pitchers of beer as I listened. In addition to his Beastie Boys duties, Adam Yauch was an independent film producer and distributor. He was also a Buddhist, and was an activist for the Tibetan Independence Movement, and organized the Tibetan Freedom Concert music festival. And judging from the live performance that I've linked below, he was one entertaining dude. (Info verified by Wikipedia)