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Ch-check it out: Beastie Boys fans honor Adam Yauch with MCA Day

Ch-check it out: Beastie Boys fans honor Adam Yauch with MCA Day
Michelle Lawlor / Lucky17Photography.com

They will offer their love and respect to the end.

A group of hardcore Beastie Boys fans are getting it together for the third annual “MCA Day” to show gratitude for the life and music of Adam Yauch, who passed away in 2012.

The event, taking place at Littlefield in Gowanus on May 3, will include DJs, Beastie Boys-themed art, and for the first time this year, live instruments.

“This is our ‘Check Your Head’ year,” said head organizer Mike Kearney, referring to the group’s third album, which was the group’s first to feature live instruments.

This is not about fighting for their right to party, said the organizers. The project is meant to be more of a memorial than rump shaking and rhyming and stealing.

“They grew up before our eyes from a beer-swilling misogynists to responsible men who used their power for good,” said co-organizer Andrew Katz.

MCA where have you been?: The life and music of late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch will be celebrated on “MCA Day.”
Associated Press / Evan Agostini

For the first “MCA Day,” Kearney drove from Boston and set up a table in Union Square less than a week after Yauch died.

“I did not know if 20 people would show up or 2,000 people,” he said.

When the turnout was good, Kearney started a Facebook page and began organizing the day as an annual event, bringing together DJs, emcees, photographers, and artists.

The organizers say the day is important because Yauch, who died at age 47, did so much good work while he was alive and also left so much unfinished. In other words — what goes around, comes around.

“He had the right idea about living a life that was of service with music at its core,” said Katz. “You can see that he was not done doing what he wanted to do. We want to perpetuate what he was trying to accomplish.”

“MCA Day” at Littlefield [622 Degraw St. between Fourth and Third Avenues, in Gowanus, (718) 855–3388, www.littlefieldnyc.com]. May 3 at 11 am. Free.

Born and bred, Brooklyn U.S.A.: The crowd at Littlefield for “MCA Day” 2013.
Michelle Lawlor / Lucky17Photography.com

Reach reporter Danielle Furfaro at dfurfaro@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2511. Follow her at twitter.com/DanielleFurfaro.