Beastie Boy Adam Yauch Diagnosed With Cancer
The Beastie Boys have announced that they will postpone the release of their new album and have been forced to cancel upcoming live dates after founding member Adam "MCA" Yauch was diagnosed with a tumor in is left parotid (saliva) gland.
In a YouTube video posted on the band's website Yauch, appearing with bandmate Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz, spoke about the situation:
"About two months ago, I started feeling this little lump in my throat, like you would feel if you had swollen glands," said Yauch, who was on tour in Europe at the time. "I called my doctor and saw him when I got back, this was about two weeks ago, and he sent me to a specialist and they did tests. I actually have a form of cancerÂ…it's in a gland called the parotid gland, and it's also in the lymph node...I have to have surgery, probably next week, and after that, I'll have to have radiation, localized in that area.
But the good news is that they did scans of my whole body, and it's only localized in this one area, and it's not in an area that affects my voice, so that's nice...It's a little bit of a setback, it's a pain in the ass, but this is something that's very treatable. In most cases they're able to completely get rid of it and people don't have continuing problems with it. And they've caught it early, and it's not anywhere else in my body, so that's the good news."
The Beastie Boys' eighth studio album, Hot Sauce Committee Part 1] was set for release on September 15, and the group had multiple festival dates scheduled, including appearances at Lallapalozza and Austin City Limits. They were also planning a special performance to celebrate the reissue of their 1992 release Check Your Head at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept 24th. Yauch apologized to those who had been planning to attend the shows before promising, "Well be back doing this again soon."
Los Angeles Versus The Beastie Boys
My phone rang early Sunday evening, it was my buddy Dave inviting me to see the Beastie Boys at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles' Griffith Park. Some great tickets fell into his lap and I jumped at the chance to go. I had not seen them live in many years. The opener, whoever it was, was already on stage by the time I got the call.
We jumped in the car and I rang FearTheReaper to invite him along. But he was still recovering from his 40th birthday party...sucks to get old, right buddy? The old FTR would have lept at the chance. I hope staying home and rubbing your feet or whatever you did was worth it.
The Greek Theater is one of the best mid-size venues I've ever been too. Last time I was there I saw Radiohead play new tracks from their yet-to-be-released album. There's really not a bad seat in the house:
The worst thing I can write about the Greek Theater is that it happens to be in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has the worst god damn crowds on the fucking planet. The most a performer could hope for from a Los Angeles audience is that people will stay off their phones, kind of nod their heads and maybe sway a little.
Even if you manage to find someone that manages to get fired-up, he still gets it wrong because he's from Los Angeles. Like this useless dildo:
He whistled like that from the second the Beasties took the stage until the end. Who was he trying to help? The band? Us? He was a loud asshole with a stupid smile. My left ear is still ringing. As his nonsense dragged on, the woman he came with glanced around nervously. I looked right at her and smiled sympathetically. It wasn't her fault. Hopefully she didn't delete her Match.com profile. Poor gal's going to need it.
Adrock knew what he was dealing with early on. He told the Greek it couldn't hurt to dance if they felt like it. Nobody was going to make fun of anybody for enjoying themselves he assured the crowd. He knew exactly what city he was playing. The Beasties played a great show even if LA sucked for them.
The idiot in front of me snuck through security with a bottle of water in her purse. She took a sip, and put it back in her purse...without the cap. Luckily for her, most of it went straight through her oddly pourous bag right onto me. She was very apologetic. Too apologetic. I just wanted to watch the show and let my wet crotch air dry. Becuase this was Los Angeles, she had no problem turning her back to the stage to chat for most of Super Disco Breaking.
Fortunately, not even live music's most worst crowd could ruin the Beastie Boys' night. Here's "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" live from the Greek:
Here's the full set list for 8-19-07 from a set list nerd at the Beasties boards:
Time for Living
Remote Control
Live at PJ's
Off the Grid
Root Down
Triple Trouble
Sure Shot
Shake Your Rump
Electric Worm
Sabrosa
Gratitude
Tough Guy
Super Disco Breaking
Pass the Mic
Body Movin'
Brass Monkey
B for My Name
Shambala
Lighten Up
Egg Raid on Mojo
3 MCs and 1 DJ
No Sleep Til Brooklyn
Ch-Check It Out
So What'cha Want
Encore:
Mix Master Mic VS The Turntables
Intergalactic
Heart Attack Man
Sabotage
The Boys needed a mulligan a couple of times, they had fun the whole time, even when they fucked up and had to restart a song. It was charming. Not like when I saw Elliot Smith stop every song twice while he was high on horse tranquilizers.
I had caught them twice before, once with DJ Hurricane and once with Mix Master Mike. As always, they played the hits and they played their instruments. In the end, Los Angeles threw everything they had into it: loud retarded whistling, cell phones, loud stupid talking and even a purse filled with water. It wasn't enough -- it was still a great show.
The Boys are on tour until October if you want to get on it.
Gerry thinks Paul's Boutique is one of the finest albums of all time.