Happy Birthday Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch: Beastie Boys Play ‘Sabotage’ At Bonnaroo 2009

Today would have been the 56th birthday of founding member of the Beastie Boys Adam “MCA” Yauch, who tragically died in 2012 at the age of 47 after a battle with cancer. With “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, MCA and the Beasties became icons of hip-hop and rock music, consistently blurring the lines between genres while becoming one of the most recognizable bands around the world. Yauch was too sick to attend the band’s 2012 induction ceremony for their entry to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but he was in attendance for the group’s performance at Bonnaroo in 2009, which turned out to be the group’s last show together.

Beastie Boys headlined the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee on Friday, June 12, 2009. The group’s set featured many of their classic hits, such as “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” “Pass the Mic,” “Root Down” and “So What’cha Want” as well as a version of “Too Many Rappers” with special guest Nas. The night ended with perhaps the band’s best known song – “Sabotage” – filling the final slot of the encore. The closing rendition of the Ill Communication single turned out to be the last public performance by Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA.

Here’s audience-shot video of “Sabotage” from Bonnaroo 2009, which MCA dedicated to his cousin Eric Yauch and featured a false start, shared by therealbeeznutz:

For more from the show, here’s side-stage footage captured by John Obeidin of Nas sitting-in on “Too Many Rappers”:

And check out pro-shot footage of “Intergalactic” shared by willsfc:

[Originally Published: August 5, 2016]